Covid-19 Readiness: The Surveys

Many Americans say they’re prepared to handle the Covid-19 outbreak — but Democrats aren’t so sure.

That’s the picture that emerges from survey outbreak-related surveys.

Resources

A copy of the LIMRA/LOMA survey summary is available here.
A copy of the Paychex employer survey summary report is available here.
A copy of the Gallup survey report is available here.
An article about a Covoid-19 impact survey is available here.

LIMRA and LOMA surveyed 28 financial services companies from Feb. 14 through March 2.

Paychex polled 300 randomly selected business owners with 2 to 500 employees from Feb. 28 through Feb. 29.

Gallup surveyed 1,019 U.S. residents ages 18 and older from March 2 through March 13.

Here’s a look at some of the results.

The Financial Services Companies

About 63% of the companies that participated in the LIMRA/LOMA survey predicted the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) — the virus that causes Covid-19 — would be comparable to a bad flu season.

About 91% of the companies said they have a pandemic stress scenario, and 94% said they have a business continuity preparedness plan.

About 84% said they had thought about the possibility that a pandemic could lead to employee deaths and operational disruptions.

The Business Owners

Only 39% of the business owners polled said they were very or extremely concerned about the outbreak.

About 75% said they have enough cash and credit to survive pandemic-related disuprtions, and 66% said they could handle a quarantine that kept employees from working on-site.

About 59% said they have a business continuity plan.

Only a little more than half — said the employees could work from home or remotely if a quarantine every went into effect.

The Consumers

Gallup found that about 61% of U.S. adults polled were very or somewhat confident aobut the U.S. government’s ability to handle an outbreak.

The likelihood that a survey participant would be very or somewhat confident about the government’s response was 85% for the Republicans, 58% for the independents, and just 43% for the Democrats.

Similarly, Democrats were much more worried than Republicans, and somewhat more worried about the independents in the survey panel, about the possibility of being exposued to SARS-CoV-2.