Poll shows Pennsylvanians think it's important to follow covid safety guidelines. But are they actually doing it?

Pennsylvania’s registered voters strongly approve of coronavirus-related safety guidelines suggested by state and federal health authorities, a recent poll shows.

According to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll, two in three, or 68%, registered voters believe it is “extremely important” to wear a mask whenever they leave home, and close to half, 48%, believe it is “extremely important” to stay home to help mitigate the spread of the virus.

But whether they are actually following those measures remains to be seen.

“I think that it’s one thing what people report in a survey, and what they actually do,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and critical care physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “We know that with polling sometimes, people will sort of want to give what they believe might be the preferred answer.”

Health officials have said wearing masks and social distancing are guaranteed ways to slow the spread of the virus and protect others. If people were truly following the safety guidelines, the country wouldn’t be seeing such spikes in covid-19 cases, Adalja said.

“At least some proportion of people endorse those types of measures in order to halt the spread of it. The question is: Are they complying with it?” Adalja said. “Clearly, in many places they aren’t, or you wouldn’t see the upswings we have in some of the states in the south or even in Allegheny County.”

Also something to consider is the age of the respondents, Adalja said. According to the poll, 51% are over the age of 55.

Seniors and people with underlying health issues are among the most vulnerable to the virus.

“If you’re somebody that’s at greater risk for complications from the virus, you’re going to be much more supportive in general of the control measures that are being offered. If you’re somebody who has less risk from it, you may not necessarily respond the same way,” Adalja said.

“I think you have to look at the sampling of that poll, and is that a representative sample of the whole population or is it skewed toward a certain demographic that is much more likely to be in agreement with those social distancing and masking measures,” Adalja said.

G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College said a reason there are so many older participants is because registered voters tend to be older.

People between the ages of 35 and 54 make up 32% of the respondents, the poll shows. Only 17% are younger than 35.

Madonna said he wasn’t surprised by the coronavirus question results due to the age of the participants.

“You have a lot of older people, 54 and above, in the survey. Many of them have pre-existing conditions. That’s all consistent with what we know about coronavirus,” Madonna said.

Maggi Mumma, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the poll responses are encouraging.

“By wearing a mask and practicing these healthy habits, we are showing respect for our neighbors across Pennsylvania. After all, preventing the spread of covid-19 is essential to protecting the health of Pennsylvanians,” Mumma said.

The poll surveyed 667 registered voters. The margin of error is 5.5 percentage points.