Despite all of the worldwide headlines, Americans don’t appear overly fearful of the coronavirus, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center For Public Affairs Research. Instead, Americans seem slightly more focused on not contracting the flu.
More than half of the over 1,000 adults polled say they are either “not too worried” or “not worried at all” about themselves or a family member getting new coronavirus, also know as COVID-19. Just 22 percent of respondents say they are extremely worried about the virus and 23 percent say they are somewhat worried.
When it comes to contracting the flu, 40 percent of respondents say they are at least somewhat concerned — nearly double of what they say about the coronavirus. Of the remaining 60 percent responding to questions about the flu, 23 percent say they are very worried.
The coronavirus is certainly a greater concern in China, where the vast majority of positive results for the virus have occurred. Should the coronavirus or any type of new virus breakout in the United States, respondents say they are more confident than not in U.S. health officials’ abilities. That confidence is highest among those who have received the flu vaccine in the past year.