Anat Gesser?Edelsburg|Ricky Cohen|Rana Hijazi|Nour Abed Elhadi Shahbari
Analysis of Public Perception of the Israeli Government’s Early Emergency Instructions Regarding COVID-19: Online Survey Study
University of Haifa|University of Haifa|University of Haifa|University of Haifa
background march 11 2020 world health organization officially declared coronavirus disease covid19 pandemic posed challenges many countries prominent among communication public gain cooperation israel faces different challenges countries management covid19 crisis midst deep constitutional crisis objective objective paper examine response israeli public governments emergency instructions regarding pandemic terms correlations overall risk perception crisis management overall risk perception economic threat perception crisis management compliance behavioral guidelines crisis management economic threat perception also made comparisons crisis management spokesperson credibility crisis management credibility information sources methods sample established using online survey enabled rapid effective distribution online questionnaire covid19 crisis selfselection online survey method nonprobability sampling used recruit participants n1056 social network posts asking general public aged 18 years answer survey results participants aged 65 years perceived higher personal risk compared aged 1830 years mean difference 033 95 ci 004061 aged 4664 years mean difference 038 95 ci 012064 significant correlations found overall risk perception attitudes toward crisis management r019 plt001 overall risk perception economic threat perception r022 plt001 attitudes toward crisis management compliance behavioral guidelines r015 plt001 attitudes toward crisis management economic threat perception r015 plt001 participants perceived prime minister credible spokesperson evaluated crisis management significantly higher groups crisis management evaluated significantly lower participants stated infectious disease specialists credible spokespersons participants ministry health website credible source information evaluated crisis management higher groups participants scientific articles credible source information evaluated crisis management lower perceived whocenters disease control prevention websites ministry healthhospital websites health care workers credible conclusions higher public trust evaluation crisis management greater compliance public guidelines also found crisis management information cannot approached way overall public furthermore unlike epidemics covid19 crisis widespread economic social consequences therefore impossible focus health risks without communicating economic social risks well