Sixty-two per cent of American women polled say that after taking into consideration both the risk of contracting Zika virus and the seriousness of the illness that they are not too worried or not worried at all, according to a new Economist/YouGov Poll.
A number of other questions concerning the Zika virus were asked including how concerned are you about a Zika epidemic in the United States. Just a little over half of respondents (54%), male and female said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned.
The numbers of those concerned are about the same as the concern about Ebola in the summer of 2014. However, that changed dramatically after the first case and eventual death of a Liberian man in Texas in Oct 2015. At that point, those “very concerned” doubled.
Respondents were also asked if the US is doing enough to prevent a Zika outbreak on the homeland. The responses were evenly divided between “doing enough”, “not doing enough” and “don’t know”.
Concerning spending on Zika research, 32% of Americans think we should increase spending, 33% say spend the same and 8% say we should decrease spending. Only a hair more than half of respondents are even watching the Zika situation closely, according to the survey.
Related:
- Harvard poll: 39% of US adults worry about an Ebola outbreak in America
- Harvard poll: Reveals public’s lack of information about Zika, pregnancy, sexual transmission
- Zika sexual transmission: ‘More common than previously assumed’
- Zika virus: Discussions with Racaniello and Stone
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