COVID-19 Check-in Survey II

Key Takeaways

• 95% support Massachusetts’ social distancing policies or feel we should go further.
• 96% expect we will take a long time to get back to normal or will have to adapt to a permanent new normal.

Summary of Survey

• A total of 2,662 of people responded to an email and Facebook survey initiated on Saturday, April 25, 2020, with 85% responding on that day.
• As to Massachusetts’ COVID-19 response, only 5% of respondents stated “We have gone too far — the economic impact is not worth it.”
• Public support for social distancing remains strong: 65% felt “The balance is right at this time” and 30% felt “We have not gone far enough — people are still doing unnecessary and unsafe things.”
• As compared to the March survey which was completed mostly before the Governor’s non-essential business closures of March 23, the group feeling “We have not gone far enough” has declined from 54% to 30%, while the group feeling “We have gone too far” has increased slightly from 3% to 5%.
• 9% reported that they were unemployed as a result of the epidemic while 3% reported they were previously unemployed. The newly unemployed were somewhat more likely to feel our response has gone too far (12%) than the respondents as a whole (5%), but 88% of them felt we have the balance right or have not gone far enough.
• The share of respondents currently behind on bills dropped slightly from 3% to 2%. This group was more likely to feel we have gone too far (29%) than the respondents as a whole (5%), but 70% of them felt we have the balance right or have not gone far enough.
• Almost half of respondents (49%) believe that “The virus may change our lifestyles in permanent ways. We may have to adapt to a new normal.” An additional 47% expect that “We will get back to normal eventually after a long period involving at least some retrictions.” Only 3% of respondents expect that “We will get back to normal pretty soon.”

As noted further below and in the discussion of the March survey the survey methods are not designed to be representative. They reflect people who are engaged in the community or in political issues, mostly within my senate district. However, the sample size is large at 2,662 and the results are broadly consistent with recent statewide polling and national polling.

Survey Outreach

The survey outreach was identical to that of the March survey — including direct email, news group email and Facebook, reaching people mostly in my Belmont/Watertown/Boston district. As before, the survey was entirely anonymous.

Survey Timing

Email delivery occurred starting at approximately 8AM on Saturday morning, April 25, 2020 and the Facebook post went up about the same time. The survey was closed a little after 11AM on Monday, April 27. The survey was open for approximately 51 hours. However, 80.5% of the responses came in during the first 12 hours and 87.2% came in during the first 24 hours. There were no major changes of social distancing policies in Massachusetts while the survey was open.

Date	Hour	% of response	cumulative % of response
Saturday, April 25, 2020	8	1.8%	1.8%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	9	14.9%	16.7%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	10	13.6%	30.3%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	11	12.3%	42.6%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	12	10.0%	52.7%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	13	8.3%	60.9%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	14	5.4%	66.3%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	15	3.9%	70.2%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	16	2.6%	72.8%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	17	3.0%	75.8%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	18	3.2%	78.9%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	19	1.5%	80.5%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	20	1.3%	81.8%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	21	1.4%	83.2%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	22	0.9%	84.1%
Saturday, April 25, 2020	23	0.8%	84.9%
Sunday, April 26, 2020	All	11.5%	96.4%
Monday, April 27, 2020	Up to 11AM	3.6%	100.0%

Survey Participation — Sample Characteristics

Our outreach methods were not designed to produce a representative sample of the community. As discussed previously, the outreach heavily targeted people who are engaged in their local community. It should be added that the outreach would especially favor those interested in online discussion of issues, especially issues of state policy. These engaged people were sent an email with a fairly neutral subject line, exactly as in the March survey or viewed an identically worded Facebook post.

For reasons that are unclear, the 24 hour response to survey was only 71% of the 24 hour response for the March survey. This does not appear to reflect survey timing. We left the survey open through Sunday into Monday (an additional 27 hours covering the same weekdays that the March survey was open ), but did not gather much additional response. The final total response to the survey was 2,662 (excluding 12 consecutive entries from the same browser/ip combination in a period of 40 minutes) as compared to 3,259 for the prior survey. The lower response may reflect factors like what the weather was when the email hit people’s inbox or perhaps people are getting a little tired of COVID news and discussion.

The age and geographic distribution was similar to the March survey. Those 65 and over were slightly more heavily represented at 35% as opposed to 29% in the March Survey.

Age of Respondents (self-reported)

24 or Under	50	2%
25 to 64	1676	63%
65 or over	936	35%
TOTAL	2662	100%

Zipcode of Respondents (self-reported)

02115 (East Fenway)	97	4%
02116 (Back Bay)	131	5%
02134 (Allston)	76	3%
02135 (Brighton)	426	16%
02215 (West Fenway)	109	4%
02472 (Watertown)	551	21%
02478 Belmont	860	32%
All other	412	15%
Total	2662	100%

Completed March Survey (self-reported)

Completed March	1122	42%
First Time Participant	1084	41%
Not sure	456	17%
Total	2662	100%

Detailed Results

The full text of the questions can be viewed at this link. The main difference from the March survey was that we did not include an “other” option. We dropped the “shelter in place” question, which people interpreted in different ways and we added a question about outlook for the pandemic.

Question 1: View of Massachusetts’ COVID-19 response so far

Have not gone far enough	790	30%
Balance right at this time	1734	65%
Have gone too far	138	5%

Question 2: Work Situation

Retired, at home, etc.	657	25%
Leaving home to work	210	8%
Unemployed prior	71	3%
Unemployed by COVID	249	9%
Working from home	1475	55%
Total	2662	100%

Question 3: Financial Situation

Behind on bills	62	2%
OK but concerned	857	32%
Secure for the next year	1743	65%
Total	2662	100%

Question 4: Expectations for Pandemic Course

Back to old normal in time	1263	47%
New normal	1312	49%
Back to old normal soon	87	3%
Total	2662	100%

Crosstab A: View of response vs. age

Age	Not enough	Just Right	Too Far
24 or Under	58%	36%	6%
25 to 64	30%	64%	6%
65 or over	28%	69%	3%

Crosstab B: View of response vs. zipcode

	Not enough	Just Right	Too Far
02115 (East Fens)	33%	60%	7%
02116 (Back Bay)	33%	63%	4%
02134 (Allston)	37%	59%	4%
02135 (Brighton)	35%	60%	5%
02215 (West Fenway)	39%	60%	2%
02472 (Watertown)	32%	63%	5%
02478 (Belmont)	24%	71%	5%
All Other	28%	66%	6%

Crosstab C: View of response vs. work situation

	Not Enough	Just Right	Too Far
Retired, at home, etc.	26%	71%	3%
Leaving home to work	35%	57%	9%
Unemployed prior to COVID	32%	62%	6%
Unemployed by COVID changes	31%	57%	12%
Working from home	30%	65%	4%

Crosstab D: View of response vs. financial situation

	Not Enough	Just Right	Too Far
Behind on bills	35%	35%	29%
OK but concerned	37%	56%	7%
Secure for a year	26%	71%	3%

Crosstab E: View of response vs. pandemic course

	Not Enough	Just Right	Too Far
Back to old normal in time	22%	73%	5%
Possible new normal	39%	58%	3%
Back to old normal soon	2%	53%	45%

Crosstab F: View of response vs. prior survey participation

	Not Enough	Just Right	Too Far
Completed March	28%	69%	4%
First Time Participant	31%	61%	7%
Not Sure	31%	66%	3%

The anonymous row by row results can be downloaded in spreadsheet form for additional analysis here.

Comparison to National Polling

Its timing is different and its questions are different, but the following poll from the Pew Research Center is broadly consistent with the present survey in showing strong support for social distancing.