Americans Have not Been Truthful about Following COVID-19 Precautions

Close to half of US adults were found to disregard some aspect of COVID-19 public health measures in a new nationwide study led in part by scientists at the Univerity of Utah (U of U) Health and published in JAMA Network Open.

Of the survey's 721 respondents, 42% reported they had misrepresented their COVID-19 health status or failed to follow pandemic precautions.

“Some individuals may think if they fib about their COVID-19 status once or twice, it’s not a big deal,” says Angela Fagerlin, PhD, senior study author and chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at U of U Health, in a statement. “But if, as our study suggests, nearly half of us are doing it, that’s a significant problem that contributes to prolonging the pandemic.”

The short slide show that follows offers a top-line look at the findings of the study, which was much larger and queried a broader range of behaviors than earlier studies on the topic.