Public Worry About RSV Has Faded, More Awareness is Still Needed

Public worry about contracting RSV has appreciably dropped in the past year, but worry about COVID-19 or seasonal flu infection has not, according to a new Annenberg Public Policy Center health survey conducted in September 2024.

The survey data was obtained from the 21^st wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,744 US adults conducted for the Annenberg Public Policy Center by SSRS, an independent market research company. The survey found that one in four people (26%) surveyed are worried about contracting or having a family member get RSV over the next three months, significantly less than one in three (35%) who were worried in October 2023, at the start of last year’s RSV season. In contrast, the survey found that 33% are worried about getting or having a member get Covid-19 in the next three months, and 37% are worried about the flu, neither one significantly changed from October 2023.

“It is possible that memories of last year’s winter holiday surge in respiratory illnesses and of the 2022-23 ‘tripledemic’ of Covid-19, flu, and RSV respiratory viruses have faded,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the survey via a press release.

The survey also found that approximately half of respondents support RSV preventative measures, such as vaccines during pregnancy, and monoclonal antibody injection for infants. However, only a small segment of respondents could correctly answer questions about RSV. Notably, only 5 people (20%) know it’s more accurate to say that RSV usually produces mild, cold-like symptoms as opposed to serious difficulties in breathing (44%), while 36% are not sure. Moreover, less than half of those surveyed recognize some of the most common symptoms of RSV in infants, which include wheezing, decreased activity, pauses in breathing, and runny nose.

Overall, the survey did show increased awareness of RSV vaccines to protect children. “We are seeing increased awareness of RSV vaccines to protect the very young,” says Laura A. Gibson, the senior data analyst at APPC who analyzed the RSV data. “If this translates into increased immunization rates, we could reduce their hospitalization rates.”