Public Opinion and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed life in the United States, influencing the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and experts. This panel brings together senior and junior scholars in political behavior and health policy to study various aspects of individual and expert experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first paper, Sarah Gollust and her colleagues explore the critical overlap between the two most important issues of 2020: racial inequalities and COVID-19. Specifically, they use multiple NORC AmeriSpeak samples from 2020 to analyze the extent to which the public recognized racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality. They demonstrate generally low levels of awareness in COVID-19 racial disparities, with key differences based on news viewership. The next two papers on this panel focus on the critical topic of public opinion surrounding COVID-19 vaccination, exploring the topic from different perspectives. First, Timothy Callaghan and his colleagues rely on an original survey of primary care physicians to analyze reluctance to vaccinate against COVID-19 among physicians in the United States. As physician recommendations are among the most important determinants of individual decisions to vaccinate, understanding the vaccination decisions of physicians themselves is vital. The authors demonstrate that a significant portion of primary care physicians are hesitant to vaccinate against COVID-19, with conservative physicians, Black physicians, and rural physicians all less likely to vaccinate. Next, the third paper on our panel by Christina Farhart and her colleagues explore the critical issues of misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine. Relying on two panel surveys, they examine how the endorsement of conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 influences willingness to vaccinate against the virus, demonstrating decreased willingness to vaccinate among individuals endorsing key COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Lastly, in the final paper of our panel, Margaret Tait studies how mass media depict people who are deemed deserving of health insurance, with an eye toward understanding how these depictions might influence attitudes about proposals to expand Medicare, Medicaid, and assistance surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Combined, these four papers work together to analyze key aspects of individual and expert experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. By exploring issues like awareness of COVID-19 health disparities, willingness to vaccinate and the role of misinformation in that process, and media depictions of people who need health insurance, this panel will provide APSA participants with vital information about public opinion and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Individual Presentations

• Americans’ Perceptions of Health Disparities in the COVID-19 Pandemic - Sarah E. Gollust, University of Minnesota; Rebekah Nagler; Erika Franklin Fowler, Wesleyan University

• Understanding Physician COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Politics, Race, and Rurality - Timothy Herbert Callaghan, Texas A&M University; Robert Kirby Goidel, Texas A&M; David J Washburn, Texas A&M University School of Public Health

• How Conspiratorial Thinking and Misinformation Undermine COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake - Christina Farhart, Carleton College; Kristin Kay Lunz Trujillo, Harvard University; Ella Douglas-Durham; Joseph Vitriol, Stony Brook University, Harvard University

• Exploring Health Care-Related Media and the Implications for Reform - Margaret Tait, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Chair

• Matthew P. Motta Oklahoma State University

Discussant

• Dominik Andrzej Stecula Colorado State University