During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4 of 10 Americans didn't follow public health measures or lied about being compliant, mostly because they wanted life to feel normal and exercise their personal freedoms, reveals a survey published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.A team led by researchers from Middlesex Community College in Connecticut and the University of Utah analyzed the responses of 1,733 adult Americans to an online survey fielded from Dec 8 to 23, 2021.Questions assessed rates of nine different kinds of misrepresentation and lack of adherence to COVID-prevention measures, virus-related beliefs, and demographic factors.
Screening questions allowed an even distribution of participants who had been infected with COVID-19, were not infected but were at least partially vaccinated, and were not infected and were unvaccinated.Average participant age was 41 years, 66.0% were women, 66.4% were White, and 27.1% had at least a bachelor's degree.Youth, greater distrust of science as factorsA total of 41.6% of respondents said they misrepresented or didn't following at least one public health measure, while 24.3% told someone they were with or about to be with that they were taking more COVID-19 precautions than they were, 22.5% broke quarantine rules, 21.5% avoided getting tested when they thought they might be infected, and 20.4% didn't disclose suspected or confirmed infection when entering a doctor's office.The most common reasons for ignoring guidelines were wanting life to feel normal and desiring to exercise personal freedom.
Other reasons cited include thinking COVID-19 was a hoax or not a major issue, believing that their behavior was no one else's concern, not having symptoms, following the advice of a