1 in 3 US adults worry about respiratory virus infections this fall and … – University of Minnesota Twin Cities

The threat of respiratory viruses is causing anxiety among US adults this fall, a third of whom say they worry that they or a family member will catch COVID-19, flu, or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the next 3 months, finds a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers fielded the Annenberg Science and Public Health Knowledge survey to 1,559 adults from October 5 to 12, 2023. It was the 13thsurvey of the nationally representative panel since April 2021 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

When asked which virus is most likely to cause severe illness, 22% of respondents said COVID-19, 13% said RSV, 7% said flu, 41% said they are equally likely to cause severe disease, and 16% said they were unsure.

Key current survey results compared with previous waves:

Because getting a flu shot yearly not only helps to protect us from serious infection but also predicts our acceptance of other CDC-recommended vaccines, the drop in reported flu vaccination we see reflected in our panel is worrisome.

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1 in 3 US adults worry about respiratory virus infections this fall and ... - University of Minnesota Twin Cities