Online poll suggests 22% of people won’t self-report COVID-19 symptoms

The poll found that the richest category of users would prefer not to report COVID-19 symptoms to the government.
Online poll suggests 22% of people won’t self-report COVID-19 symptoms
Online poll suggests 22% of people won’t self-report COVID-19 symptoms

Would you report to a hospital if you displayed symptoms of the coronavirus? A recent poll conducted by a civic engagement app suggests that as many as 22% of people would not disclose symptoms to a hospital, out of fear of ‘quarantine facilities’.

The Neta App, which ‘aims to foster political accountability’, asked this question in a poll on the platform after news reportedly emerged of a family with foreign travel history who showed symptoms of COVID-19. They reportedly had a pact with neighbours to not report them to the government. Wanting to know how many others would prefer to hide their symptoms, the app quickly put out a question to its users.

The political analysis app, which usually tracks elections and voter satisfaction, received over 12,000 responses.

While 78% of those polled said they would report , a large number of people said no: 22% of those polled.

Pratham Mittal, the founder of the app, said that they found that there was a disparity when it came to the income levels of the respondents. “The people who earned the least said that they would be happy to report, however, those earning the most, at the top of the pyramid, 33% said they wouldn’t want to go to the government hospital to report their symptoms,” Pratham told TNM.

Even more shockingly, when Pratham’s team looked at the data from iPhone users, they found that 64% of users said that they would not report their symptoms to the government. “People who use iPhones are usually those who belong to the category of people who have a large disposable income, which is why their data was looked at separately,” he said.

Data such as this holds significant implications for the government, which is trying to ‘flatten the curve’ of the virus’ spread across the country by imposing a three-week lockdown.

“We first pushed the question through the app to people who lived in Delhi. We were shocked to find that 20% of people— one in five— will not report if they have symptoms. So we decided to ask the rest of the country,” Pratham said.

The age of the respondent also mattered in how they responded. The results found that people who belong to the 20-40 year age bracket were more likely to say that they wouldn’t report their symptoms. “The poll had a comments section and we found that the people who were younger said that they felt they would be able to fight the disease.”

The poll results from the southern states of India are as follows:

Karnataka: 82.90 % said they would report their symptoms, while 17.10 % said that they would not.

Telangana: 83.54 % said they would report their symptoms, while 16.46 % said they would not.

Andhra Pradesh: 81.78 % said they would report their symptoms, while 8.22 % said they would not.

Kerala: 79.01 % said they would report their symptoms, while 20.99% said they would not report their symptoms.

Tamil Nadu: 83.39 % said they would report their symptoms, while 16.61 % said they would not report.

Maharashtra: 78.99% said they would report their symptoms, while 21.01 % said they would not report.

The poll was extended to users from 23 other states in the country, and the sample size was diverse, with 51% of respondents saying that they were from rural areas, a report from Neta said. Neta said that they tried to keep responses balanced, by using SMS and IVR (interactive voice response). The poll was active only for a day, March 29.

The Neta app is a relatively new app/website that was released in 2018. It has previously run into trouble with the Election Commission during the 2019 General Elections, for ‘publishing opinion polls’ while the code of conduct was in force.

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