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Illustration by Todd Kleiboer
Hopkins County residents overall believe that most cases of COVID-19 are not being tested and made public, although they indicate they have faith in local emergency management, according to a survey by the News-Telegram.
A survey conducted between March 23 and March 31 by the News-Telegram garnered 247 responses. The majority, approximately 65% of respondents, reported they had experienced at least some symptoms of COVID-19, but approximately 73% of those did not discuss their symptoms with a healthcare professional.
Of those who did discuss symptoms with a healthcare professional, several respondents mentioned that the healthcare professional mentioned other disease patterns.
One respondent stated: “They tested for flu instead, and [the] tests were negative so they called it a virus.”
Another respondent echoed, “Was told ‘it’s probably just a virus’ and given cough medicine.”
“No answer given. Diagnosed with a generic respiratory virus,” said another respondent.
Other respondents stated they did not fit specific criteria for testing.
“They tested me for [the] flu and strep only. There were no tests for covid 19 as it was March 9th,” said one respondent.
Another respondent said they had “No direct contact although my husband’s co-worker tested positive and my brother traveled to New York.”
Another respondent noted that they did not meet the age requirement for testing, and another respondent noted they were turned away for testing as they did not have a fever.
In a question asking if people feel safe about current preventive measures implemented by emergency health management, the overall response was negative. Close to 40% of people answered they did feel safe, and about 60% answered they did not.
When respondents aged 43 and up were asked the same question, the response was split almost evenly. Forty-seven percent answered they felt safe while 53% responded they did not.
Comparing that to their younger counterparts, the gap was more noticeable. Thirty-three percent of respondents 42 or younger stated they felt safe, while the remaining 67% did not.
Gender also affected the response. Men answered more positively with 56% stating they felt safe compared to 37% of women.
Contrasting this, in a different News-Telegram poll asking how citizens felt specifically with local emergency management response, the results were flipped. In a poll asking “Are the new restrictions placed by county government and emergency management in response to COVID-19 proportional to what’s going on?” 72% of 99 people who responded answered the restrictions were proportional and “will hopefully protect us from having further cases of coronavirus in our county.” Eleven percent responded that the response from emergency management was disproportional and “restrictions are violating our freedoms, and/ or claims about the seriousness of the virus are overstated.”
When asked if they believed all possible cases of COVID-19 are being tested, 93% of people responded no. Age again affected the responses. Ninety-six percent of people ages 18-42 responded negatively compared to 90% of people 43 and up.
Men were slightly more trusting of case reporting, with 17% answering they believed all cases are being tested compared to 5% of women.
When broken down by age, 78% of people ages 18-42 believed the same compared to 69% of people 43 and up. Men were split evenly at 47%, believing all case were being made public compared to 37% of women.
In total, the information gathered from these data show that men and older people are slightly more trusting than women and younger people that cases of COVID-19 are being properly tested and reported. Data show that the majority of respondents experienced some symptoms but did not consult a healthcare professional, and those that did received a message that they were experiencing symptoms of other diseases or viruses.
Although a majority of respondents did not trust that cases were being properly documented, they expressed faith in their local emergency management.