A majority of Americans — 66 percent — are at least somewhat concerned that they or a family member will become infected by the coronavirus — up from less than half a month ago, a new poll released on Thursday found.
Thirty-one percent said they are very or extremely worried that they or a loved one will become ill during the outbreak and 35 percent said they were somewhat worried — while about 3 in 10 Americans say they’re not concerned at all, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows.
Only 45 percent were at least somewhat concerned in February’s survey.
Eight-eight percent of respondents said they were frequently washing their hands to protect themselves from catching the virus, and 8 percent said they were avoiding large crowds — precautions suggested by health-care experts.
But 7 percent said they were following none of the recommendations.
“Some set of people is still going about their daily lives, and that needs to change pretty rapidly,” said Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president at NORC at the University of Chicago and a health policy expert. “Now they need to do the hard things, not just the easy things that don’t disrupt their life.”
Broken down by age, 43 percent of adults 18 to 29 are extremely or very concerned they or a family member will become sick, compared to 34 percent of those 30 to 44, 30 percent in the 45 to 59 age group and 21 percent of those 60 or older.
Independents express more worry about the virus — 39 percent extremely or very concerned — than Democrats, 36 percent, and Republicans, 21 percent.
There are more than 8,700 cases of the virus in the US, and 149 people have died from COVID-19.
The poll was conducted nationally between March 12-16 and surveyed 1,003 adults.
It has a plus/minus 4.3 percentage point margin of error.
