What Americans know and fear about Zika

by Don Sapatkin

Published Feb. 23, 2016, 11:26 a.m. ET

Americans are paying close attention to news about the Zika, with just over half saying they are concerned that it could reach their neighborhood and the vast majority aware that the virus is spread to humans by mosquitoes, a new survey found.

Along with the high level of awareness were confusion and misinformation about what caused the outbreak and how the virus is transmitted, according to the survey conducted this month by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

There has been extensive news coverage about the virus, which has very quickly spread throughout Latin America. It has been linked to increases in Brazil of babies born with abnormally small heads, known as microcephaly, and a rise in several countries of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that can cause temporary paralysis. Neither association has been proven.

Highlights from the survey, called Annenberg Science Knowledge:

91 percent responded correctly that mosquitoes transmit Zika to humans.
35 percent said incorrectly that genetically modified or transgenic mosquitoes caused the outbreak in Brazil; 43 percent said they believed that GMO mosquitoes could minimize the spread.
65 percent said that scientists believe it is likely that someone can get Zika by sexual intercourse. (Scientists have said that sexual transmission is possible – there have been a few cases, compared to millions of cases transmitted by mosquitoes.)
19 percent said incorrectly that "sitting next to someone who has the Zika virus" is considered a likely way to catch it.
38 percent said incorrectly that someone who contracts the Zika virus will die as a result. (More than 80 percent of cases have no symptoms at all and most of the rest are mild.)
51 percent of Americans are concerned about the virus reaching their neighborhoods. That includes more women (58 percent) than men (43 percent); more people 50 and older (58 percent) than those under 30 (46 percent). Among those who are "very concerned" about the virus' spread are more African Americans (35 percent) and Hispanics (32 percent) than non-Hispanic whites (16 percent).
63 percent of Americans are optimistic that scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will develop a vaccine against Zika by the end of the summer.

Complete survey results and methodology are posted here.

"Understanding science matters," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). "If people want accurate information about Zika they should turn to the CDC, and to debunk viral nonsense they should turn to SciCheck. As rumors spread conspiracy theories and fear, the country is fortunate that public confidence in the CDC is high."

The survey of 1,014 respondents was conducted by phone from February 12-16. It is the first in a series of Annenberg Science Knowledge surveys conducted by the policy center as part of its studies on the Science of Science Communication. The ASK survey, directed by APPC Managing Director of Survey Research Ken Winneg, has a margin of error for total respondents of +/-3.74 percent and higher for demographic subgroups.