The Political Division toward COVID-19, Vaccines, Contact Tracing Apps, and A Future Pandemic Scenario in the United States: A Survey Result from A National Representative Sample

ObjectivesTo investigate the attitudes and behaviors of Americans concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 tracing apps, and the actions they believe the government should take during a public health crisis, we designed and conducted a survey during the ongoing COVID-19 emergency. MethodsIn January 2022, we administered an online survey on Prolific Academic to 302 participants in the United States, a nationally demographic representative sample. To explore differences in attitudes and opinions among demographic subgroups, we employed several statistical tests, including Mann Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and chi-squared tests. ResultsOur survey results suggest that Americans opinions towards the COVID-19 pandemic are severely divided by their political views. There is strong partisan polarization in almost every COVID-19 related question in our survey. Policy ImplicationsOur findings suggest that policy makers need to consider partisan polarization and the enormous impact it can have on peoples attitudes and behaviors during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts need to consider how to convey scientific knowledge about a pandemic without allowing political views to dominate medical conversation.