November 16, 2001

Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and management in the Department of Health Policy and Management, has launched a series of surveys by HSPH and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to find out how Americans are reacting to biological terrorism. The results of the first survey were released last week.

The good news is that most Americans understand that they are at low risk for contracting anthrax or smallpox and recognize they are far more likely to catch the flu in the next year. (The flu kills 20,000 people each year in the US.)

Only one-quarter of the public reports being very or somewhat worried about contracting anthrax through the mail at home or at work. Understandably, however, more than half of postal workers and their families are worried.

A majority of the people reported they had taken precautions against bioterrorism, such as stockpiling food, but most of them had not undertaken extensive precautions.

No national figure was identified as trusted by a majority of the public as a source of reliable information during a national outbreak of disease caused by bioterrorism, however Jeffrey Koplan, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director and HSPH alumnus, and David Satcher, US Surgeon General, emerged as two officials whom the public trusts more than others.

Instead, the public showed more faith in their local and state authorities. They overwhelmingly trusted their own doctors, as well as their fire, police and health departments.

"The survey is important because the CDC and other public health officials need to know this information, and we can show them how Americans are responding to biological terrorism and what they are thinking," said Blendon.

He explained that it is very difficult for the CDC to mount such a survey on its own due to restrictions placed on the agency by the federal government.

The Survey Project on Americans’ Response to Biological Terrorism has been funded for four months, and Blendon plans to release surveys every two to three weeks.