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

Objectives To 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. Methods In 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. Results Our 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 Implications Our findings suggest that policy makers need to consider partisan polarization and the enormous impact it can have on people’s 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. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The present study does not receive any funding. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: To: Xinru Page Department: BYU - Computer Science From: Sandee Aina, MPA, HRPP Associate Director Wayne Larsen, MAcc, IRB Administrator Date: December 17, 2021 IRB#: IRB2021-394 Title: Investigating Information that People Find Useful During a Pandemic Brigham Young University’s IRB has approved the research study referenced in the subject heading as exempt level, category 2. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Please contact Prof. Xinru Page for the data availability.