Experiencing COVID-19 eroded institutional trust but increased appetite for reform

In this article, authors Warren May et al. wanted to investigate how certain attitudes held by Americans were affected by their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if those attitudes could impact future pandemic planning and response. The authors analyzed survey data from the “COVID-19 and the Experiences of Populations at Greater Risk Survey (CEPGRS),” for which they were the primary investigators. A longitudinal study funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the CEPGRS was fielded in four waves by the RAND Corporation between June 2020 and October 2021. In the last few months, the Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA) has released each of the four waves in individual studies (linked below).

The CEPGRS was created in order to understand how health views and values have been affected by the experience of the pandemic, with particular focus on populations deemed vulnerable or underserved, including people of color and those from low-to moderate-income backgrounds. To that end, the study combined data from two nationally representative Internet panels, and from each panel, oversampling of minority populations was done and household income limits were imposed in order to focus the CEPGRS on those likely eligible for federal stimulus checks. The final sample in Wave 1 contained just over 5,000 respondents, who were then invited to participate in the remaining three waves. CEPGRS survey questions focused specifically on experiences related to the pandemic (e.g., financial, physical, emotional); how respondents viewed the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic; whether and how respondents’ views and priorities regarding health actions and investments were changing (including the roles of government and the private sector); and how general values about such issues as freedom and racism may be related to pandemic views and response expectations.

For this article, Warren May et al. looked at data collected in Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 of the study. (Wave 4, which is also available at ICPSR, was not included in this paper’s analysis.) They examined three main sets of attitudes: “personal COVID-19-related impacts, attitudes about institutions, and views of social change that could either pose challenges or help policy-makers leverage those attitudes to augment preparedness activities.” The authors found that over the first three survey waves, the percentage of people who had experienced COVID-19 effects like illness, emotional distress, and financial hardship increased from 43 percent to 70 percent. The percentage who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 themselves or had a loved one diagnosed grew from around 9 percent in Summer 2020 to 28 percent in Winter 2021. The most commonly reported COVID-19 impact shifted over time, as well. In Summer 2020, the top reported effect was childcare/healthcare challenges. By Winter 2021, financial hardship and emotional distress became more widely reported impacts. Those who faced COVID-19 impacts expressed less faith in the state and federal government’s pandemic response. But they were more likely to see the pandemic as an opportunity for positive reforms, like reducing income inequality. Warren May et al. noted multiple implications from their findings, not the least of which was that “officials may need to anticipate potential backlash to response measures based on the evolving attitudes of people facing pandemic burdens.”