In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Just after a public health emergency was declared due to the H1N1 virus, the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a survey to find out how concerned Americans are about the outbreak, how they are responding and what they believe about transmission, prevention and treatment. It was released this morning. The survey found that nearly half of Americans (46%) are concerned that they or someone in their immediate family may get sick from the H1N1 flu during the next 12 months. [Though as the fieldwork was conducted, via telephone (including both landline and cell phone) on April 29th, attitudes could have changed over the past two days.]

What I found more interesting is some of the actions that respondents say they had already taken — some positive, others seemingly a little dubious (though again behavior may have changed in the 48 hours since the survey was conducted): More than half of Americans are responding to the outbreak by washing their hands or using hand sanitizer more frequently (59%), and a quarter are avoiding places where many people are gathered, like sporting events, malls or public transportation (25%). Some Americans have also responded in other ways: avoiding people who they thought may have recently traveled to Mexico (20%), avoiding Mexican restaurants or stores (17%), wearing a face mask (8%), buying a face mask (5%), talking with their doctor about health issues related to swine flu (5%), or getting a prescription for antiviral medications (1%). Only a small number (4%) of parents have kept their children home from school or daycare.

“It is a good sign that most people, though not all, are taking the most important precaution recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread of swine flu: washing their hands,” said Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.

I think that government officials should address some of the findings of this survey to correct any misapprehensions that the public (even a minority) might have and also to reinforce any positive actions reported. For example, I know that avoiding crowds, public transportation and Mexican restaurants is not behavior being recommended by authorities. And I’m pretty sure that staying away from people who have been in Mexico recently is being over cautious. But as a good deal of Americans are doing so, I would think it would make sense for officials to address it explicitly.

UPDATE: In a teleconference discussing the results this afternoon, Dr. Blendon said based on the findings about a relatively significant number of respondents saying they were avoiding big crowds, people who have travelled to Mexico and Mexican restaurants & stores, there was indeed a “need for authorities to explain to the public” which behaviors were “high risk” and which were not.

Other results of the survey: an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that they can get the current swine flu from being in close contact with someone who has it (83%), and few believe that they can get the disease from eating pork (13%). Some Americans also believe that they can get the swine flu from being near, but not in close contact with, someone with swine flu (29%), or from being in contact with pigs (34%). Americans are less certain about prevention and medicine for swine flu. Just over half believe that there is an effective medicine to treat the disease (54%). Most Americans (65%) don’t believe that there is a vaccine to prevent the disease. About half of Americans (53%) believe that wearing a face mask could prevent them from getting sick from the swine flu, while more than three-quarters (78 percent) believe that wearing a face mask when sick would help keep them from getting others sick.