COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) to be continued

"We are currently in a situation where a certain relaxation is experienced with regard to the pandemic," says Professor Cornelia Betsch, head of the COSMO team. "Respondents feel a lower risk and protect themselves and others less than in the delta wave." And so protective behaviour continues to decline steadily. One possible reason for this is that other crises such as the Ukraine war and climate change have "replaced" the pandemic. The latest surveys showed that people search for information on the pandemic much less frequently than on the other topics.

Looking ahead to autumn, the COSMO study shows that the various protective measures are valued differently: In particular, the reintroduction of mandatory masks, the expansion of home office work and the cancellation of indoor recreational events are seen by 40 to 70 percent of respondents as partly justified to reduce illness and deaths even if the situation changes little compared to now. Should a particularly unfavourable scenario occur, restrictive measures would therefore be more likely to be accepted.

Just under one third of those now surveyed said they had (had) already suffered from COVID, 14 percent of them reported suffering from long-COVID. "Overall, the finding that people without vaccination protection want to remain unvaccinated is further strengthened," the evaluation of the latest waves also states. This also applies to children, it said. "An increase in the vaccination rate is therefore not to be expected without further ado," the COSMO team explains.

In the new survey, participants were also asked about monkeypox. As a result, these are considered to be less serious than Corona. However, about one third of the respondents fear that monkeypox could become the next pandemic.

Further details can be found at: h https://projekte.uni-erfurt.de/cosmo2020/web/summary/62-64/.