Two students wear masks as they walk across the oval with Thompson Library in the background. A Wexner Medical Center survey of 2,000 Americans showed many Americans will continue to use COVID-19 health precautions after the pandemic is under control. Credit: Christian Harsa | Asst. Photo Editor
Pandemic precautions may be getting old, but many Americans aren’t ready to give them up — even after COVID-19 is under control.
A national survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted by the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State between Jan. 12 and 14 found the majority of people plan to take health precautions even after the pandemic is under control, Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at the medical center, said.
Gonsenhauser said the survey asked if people would continue to physically distance, wear masks, stay home from work when feeling sick and take other measures used to limit the spread of the coronavirus during the past year.
After the pandemic, almost 72 percent of survey participants said they plan to wear masks in public, 80 percent will avoid crowds and 90 percent will wash their hands and use sanitizer often.
These results are surprising — and a little overconfident, Gonsenhauser said.
“The responses are more optimistic than I’m actually comfortable accepting; I think they’re probably painting a rosier picture than we will actually see post-pandemic,” Gonsenhauser said.
Frederic Bertley, president and CEO of COSI and an immunologist who specializes in viral spread, said people should continue precautions until the very low infection levels are achieved.
“The decisions should be made based on the data, and the data that needs to be looked at is how much virus is out there in the community,” Bertley said. “And once that data is there and can be verified, then we can make smart decisions to say, ‘OK, we don’t need to social distance, and we don’t need to worry.’”
Gonsenhauser said he thinks pandemic fatigue may make people more willing to continue COVID-19 precautions if they think they will help end the pandemic sooner.
If all or many survey respondents who said they would continue precautions did, the flu would continue as a lesser threat, Gonsenhauser said.
Scientists predict cold and flu transmission decreased in the past year, but that data has not yet been compiled, Bertley said.
“If people in fact continue to utilize masking and physical distancing post-pandemic, we would certainly see a decrease in the incidence of those other things — common cold and flu — and we’ll see lower demand on health care systems,” Gonsenhauser said.
The knowledge that wearing masks and physical distancing reduces the flu and common cold could have influenced how many people responded to the survey saying they were willing to continue the precautions, Gonsenhauser said.
Bertley said only two infectious diseases have ever been eradicated: polio and smallpox. COVID-19 will be controlled, but never completely gone.
If the pandemic is properly managed moving forward, Bertley said COVID-19 will likely act similar to measles, with an occasional outbreak in unvaccinated communities, but largely under control.
“The vaccine and the series of vaccines should allow us to control it so that we don’t have a pandemic situation again,” Bertley said.
