Does fear of getting Ebola relate to confidence in government to contain it?
Yesterday, Gallup released a poll, comparing fears of Americans to getting Ebola to previous polls asking similar questions about H1N1(2009) and Bird Flu (2005-6). The most interesting finding, I thought, was this: The poll found that more Americans were concerned about getting Ebola than they were concerned about getting H1N1, even though there was a lot more of it in closer proximity to Americans.
Could this be related to confidence in the federal government to contain Ebola? The poll data suggests it might be. When asked about confidence in the federal government to contain Ebola, 61% were confident; while the poll during the 2009 H1N1/Swine Flu outbreak, confidence in the federal government to contain it was 74%.
While Gallup did not make this association, I suggest that there may be a correlation if the data were analyzed with these two bivariate responses and if the same people who were concerned about getting Ebola were also not confident in the government at a frequency that was statistically significant, then that could be one of the most important findings in the poll, if they had taken this next step in their analysis.
Here's the report if you would like to read it more closely: Gallup poll report .
I believe you are absolutely correct in that correlation. The governments response to the Ebola outbreak was less than satisfactory. It was obvious that our government was not prepared for this disease to come to the United States, and many Americans noticed that. They did not make the American people confident that they could contain this disease, and in fact, they did a horrendous job in putting down myths about how you get Ebola, and the likelihood that an average American would contract it. I think the government should learn from this occurrence and realize that if anything were to happen like this again, the American people would need confidence in their government's response to feel safe.
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