Most Americans support strict shelter-in-place orders to help prevent COVID-19's spread, but are split on whether they'd let health officials use their cellphone data to aid in contact tracing, according to a new survey from Kaiser Family Foundation.
KFF polled a nationally representative sample of 1,202 adults from April 15-20, assessing their attitudes on the pandemic. KFF then compared these results to a similar survey it published in early April.
Five survey findings:
1. Fifty-one percent of Americans said the worst of the pandemic is yet to come, down from 74 percent of Americans who said the same in KFF's poll from early April.
2. Eighty percent said strict shelter-in-place measures are worth it to protect Americans and limit COVID-19's spread.
3. A majority (81 percent) said they could continue to follow social distancing and shelter-in-place guidelines for more than another month. Of this group, 37 percent said they could go another one to three months, and 10 percent said they could go four to six months.
4. Among Americans living in counties with five or fewer reported deaths, 36 percent said they left their homes in the past week to visit family or friends. Only 21 percent of those living in counties with more than 25 deaths said the same.
5. Sixty-eight percent of Americans said they would be willing to share their COVID-19 test results using their smartphone. However, Americans were more split on whether they'd be willing to download a smartphone app that uses Bluetooth and GPS to track who they come in contact with to help prevent the virus's spread. Forty-five percent said they'd be willing to download the app and share that information with public health officials.
To view the full survey, click here.