TY  - JOUR
AU  - Shauly, Orr
AU  - Stone, Gregory
AU  - Gould, Daniel
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/26
TI  - The Public’s Perception of the Severity and Global Impact at the Start of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Crowdsourcing-Based Cross-Sectional Analysis
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e19768
VL  - 22
IS  - 11
KW  - Amazon Mechanical Turk
KW  - crowdsourcing
KW  - COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
KW  - pandemic
KW  - perception
KW  - public opinion
KW  - survey
KW  - severity
KW  - impact
KW  - behavior
KW  - education
AB  - Background: COVID-19 is a rapidly developing threat to most people in the United States and abroad. The behaviors of the public are important to understand, as they may have a tremendous impact on the course of this novel coronavirus pandemic. Objective: This study intends to assess the US population’s perception and knowledge of the virus as a threat and the behaviors of the general population in response. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted with random volunteers recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, an internet crowdsourcing service, on March 24, 2020. Results: A total of 969 participants met the inclusion criteria. It was found that the perceived severity of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly differed between age groups (P<.001) and men and women (P<.001). A majority of study participants were actively adhering to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Conclusions: Though many participants identified COVID-19 as a threat, many failed to place themselves appropriately in the correct categories with respect to risk. This may indicate a need for additional public education for appropriately defining the risk of this novel pandemic. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - http://www.jmir.org/2020/11/e19768/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/19768
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33108314
DO  - 10.2196/19768
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/19768
ER  -