Public Opinion Survey
March 2020
Supervised by: Dr. Samir Abu-Rumman
Introduction
The World of Opinion Center conducted a survey about the Jordanian community’s opinion on Coronavirus epidemic in order to identify the extent of the Jordanian public’s knowledge of the disease, and ways to prevent it, and the most prominent changes that the virus has caused in Jordanians health and social behaviors, and to know the extent of Jordanian society’s satisfaction with government measures taken, in the hope that This contributes to increasing awareness of the epidemic and how to prevent it, and changing habits to ensure that it is besieged and limiting its spread.
The sample of the survey comprised of respondent’s data from previous surveys and available databases. A snowball sample method was applied to receive more responses. The sample size was 552 response. The data collection was conducted online between 16-21 of march 2020. Gender and age groups of respondents is shown in the table below:
Findings
1) The official bulletins from the Ministry of Health or the Medical Syndicate, and social media sites (Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.) were the most prominent sources from which Jordanians received their information related to the Corona virus.
2) More than half of Jordanians 53% believe that the cause of appearance of Corona virus is a biological warfare between major and global powers, while more than the third 39% saw that Corona is a virus like the rest of the viruses that appear in certain seasons.
3) Almost two thirds of Jordanians 63% considered corona virus a divine punishment.
4) An overwhelming majority of Jordanians 95.4% follow the news related to the new Corona virus and consider this a major priority, while three quarters of Jordanians 73.6% can easily differentiate between the symptoms of the new Corona (high fever and dry cough) and other flu infections.
5) The majority of Jordanians take major preventive measures to protect against Coronavirus, such as washing hands more78.1%, staying at home 75.7%, and using hand sanitizers 70.7%, and in a less degree, preventive measures that related to social life, such as avoiding kissing 69.4%, reducing social interaction 64.1%, and hand-to-hand peace with others 55.6%.
6) A large majority of Jordanians 93% recognized that spread of corona has caused a change in their health and social habits, as their fear of the virus has led them to avoid attending some social, cultural, religious, political or other events, and 90.5% are becoming more dependent, in light of the spread of the epidemic, on the means of communication Modern rather than participating in many different social events.
7) An overwhelming majority of Jordanians will advise those showing symptoms of the epidemic (fever and cold) to be absent from work 98.5%, or studies 99.4%, or attending social events 99.1%, in addition to visiting a doctor to find out the cause of the fever 95.8%.
8) Two thirds of Jordanians 68% are optimistic that things will start to improve in the coming days, while a quarter of them 26% think that the worst is yet to come.
9) A large majority of Jordanians 89.5% expressed their willingness to give up some of their rights if this would help limit the spread of the virus, and 83% expressed their fear of infection or a family member with the Corona virus , and they also believe that Jordanian government 83% and various media 80.3% deal with the Corona virus Transparently and well, three quarters of Jordanians 74.6% consider that eating some household herbs such as ginger or aniseed or popular recipes such as nigella helps prevent corona virus, while less than half of Jordanians 45.1% see the Corona virus as an exaggerated danger!
10) There is almost unanimity among the Jordanians to support the government’s recent decisions to stop passengers movement of land, sea and air with neighboring countries 99.4%, to suspend working hours in schools and universities 99.4%, to prevent the provision of smoking water pipes and their services, smoking in cafes and restaurants 98.9%, and domestic isolation 97.1%, and to prevent visits to hospitals and prisons 96.9%, and to a less extent, respondents supported Wandering 88.3%, and stopping prayers in mosques and churches 87.1%.
For full Arabic report: https://www.worldofopinions.org/?p=5328
