PUBLIC POLICY AND COVID-19
Encouraging Public Adherence to COVID-19 Recommendations and Orders
Insights for government responses to COVID-19
Written by Nathan Favero & Mogens Jin Pedersen
With COVID-19 cases now rising in several places throughout the U.S., many states are urging or requiring residents to adopt behaviors that can help to mitigate the spread of the virus. Attention has largely been focused on three sets of behaviors: social distancing, wearing masks, and frequently washing hands or using hand sanitizer.
While governments can issue orders requiring businesses to shut down or people to wear masks at grocery stores, the effectiveness of government regulation to control the spread of the virus largely depends upon the extent to which ordinary residents choose to adopt behaviors known to limit the spread of the virus. After all, it is difficult for the government to stop people from informally gathering with friends and relatives, even when such gatherings violate public health guidance and risk contributing to spread of the disease.
Willingness to Social Distancing
In early April, we conducted a survey to determine what types of people expressed the most willingness to engage in social distancing behaviors. Our results indicated that there was generally a high willingness among the public to engage in social distancing, although most respondents indicated limits to how long they could see themselves engaging in the strict social distancing behaviors typically required by stay-at-home orders. Half of our survey respondents said they could not see themselves staying home and avoiding social contact for longer than 10 weeks.
While most survey respondents indicated a high willingness to comply with social distancing, we found some exceptions. The people who expressed less willingness to social distance tended to (1) follow news about COVID-19 less closely than other respondents, (2) express greater concern for economic conditions relative to health considerations, and (3) indicate greater prosocial motivation (or concern for others).
Compared to people who get most of their news from the radio or TV, those who read news websites or magazines were somewhat more willing to report adopting social distancing behaviors or to say they could see themselves maintaining social distancing for longer. Demographic characteristics were not great predictors of who said they would maintain social distance, but some weak associations were found. Women, Democrats, and older respondents all tended to indicate that they would do more social distancing (although men said they could see themselves isolated for longer).
Since the time of our survey (early April), many states have begun to open up, and people appear to be leaving their homes more. What can be done, now that it is mid-summer, to encourage the public to remain vigilant in their efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19?
Government Actions for Slowing COVID-19
First, government officials should engage in public messaging that emphasizes the continued importance of maintaining appropriate social distancing measures, wearing masks, and washing hands or using hand sanitizer. Our survey findings suggest that such dissemination may be especially impactful if conveyed through radio or TV outlets, since people obtaining news from these mediums are least likely to express an intention to already social distance.
Moreover, we recommend that public messaging should do more than simply remind the public about the appropriate conduct for mitigating the spread of the virus. At this point in time, public information should convey tangible guidance assisting people in how to responsibly engage in social interactions and in how to use masks correctly.
Second, public messaging may be helpful but not sufficient. At this stage of the pandemic, behavioral non-compliance with official orders and recommendations may be widely driven by factors other than a basic lack of knowledge about the dangers of the virus and what actions can help slow its spread. Besides personal beliefs and ideologies, non-compliance may be driven not by a lack of will, but by structural constraints and limited available resources.
For example, adhering to strict social distancing is more difficult in high population density areas and in communities characterized by greater civic involvement, participation, and social gatherings. Similarly, masks and hand sanitizer are not freely available. Policy-makers and administrators should consider that effective and normatively laudable implementation of governmental regulation requires an attention to societal structures and structural inequities. Governments should actively seek to reduce the barriers to complying with public health guidelines, especially in under-resourced communities.
Finally, government officials should actively seek to avoid infusing “politics” (political values and norms) into “administration” (scientifically-informed advice and implementation). Government interventions should be separated as much as possible from political partisanship. At both federal and state levels, health recommendations and orders should be widely and explicitly endorsed both by Republican and Democratic politicians. While political communication and actions have largely fractured along partisan lines over the past few months, we do observe a recent movement toward coming back together. In light of the recent wave of new COVID-19 cases, prominent Republicans at both the state and federal levels have begun to again join Democratic leaders in urging the public to use masks and to practice social distancing, at least in hotspot areas.
Defeating a challenge as great as that posed by COVID-19 calls for unity — both among the public in their behavioral responses and among politicians at both sides of the partisan divide.
Nathan Favero is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration And Policy at American University. Mogens Jin Pedersen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at University of Copenhagen.
