New Axios/Ipsos American Health Index also finds Americans most worried about opioids/fentanyl and obesity for the country’s public health

August 23, 2024 - Washington DC -  As a summer COVID surge continues, the latest Axios/Ipsos American Health Index finds that concern about COVID is ticking up, even as mask use hasn’t changed. However, concern about COVID remains relatively low and in line with other respiratory illnesses, like the flu.

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When it comes to the top public health worries for the country, opioids and fentanyl along with obesity rise to the top, and COVID remains low. Majorities of Americans find many policies that reduce the use of opioids and fentanyl or overdose deaths important. On a different topic, the use of prescription weight loss drugs remains low but is rising, as many support health insurance companies covering the cost of these drugs.

With summer underway, many Americans report experiencing extreme weather in the past month, though this is down relative to last year.

Detailed findings:

1. Slightly more Americans believe contracting COVID is a significant risk to their health. Yet, few Americans are wearing masks, something that has stayed the same since last quarter.

• In line with elevated cases right now, slightly more Americans than in the spring believe contracting COVID is a large or moderate risk to their health (32% in August 2024 vs. 27% in June 2024). However, these numbers match how Americans rate the risk of contracting flu, RSV, or other respiratory illnesses. Even as concern rose this wave, only 3% of Americans say COVID is the number one health threat now.
• Slightly more Americans have also taken an at-home COVID test in the past week. About one in five (21%) have taken a COVID test at least once. Last quarter, 17% of Americans reported that frequency of at-home testing.
• Despite growing concern, only 13% of Americans report wearing a mask in public settings all or some of the time, statistically unchanged from the last wave (14% in June 2024).
• A bare majority of Americans (52%) agree the pandemic is over, down five percentage points from the spring (57%). Few (35%) agree that America is adequately prepared to deal with another pandemic or widespread health crisis; three in five Americans trust the CDC on COVID, lower than every other public health issue tested outside of gun violence and crime.

2. Americans see opioids and fentanyl alongside obesity as the single biggest threat to American public health.

• Americans see opioids/fentanyl and obesity as the number one health threat for the country. Concern about opioids and fentanyl are down slightly compared to last quarter and down by six percentage points compared to this time last year.

• Three in four (75%) feel the government should be doing more to reduce the number of drug overdose deaths. Relatedly, most Americans find policies are important that reduce the use of, and overdoses from, opioids and fentanyl.
• For example, over four in five Americans feel it is important to increase funding for efforts to detect and capture opioids, heroin, and fentanyl being brought into the United States from other countries.
• Most also feel it is important to identify and close doctors’ practices and clinics that prescribe opioids (74%), expand the availability of drugs that can reverse overdoses at no cost (71%), and require health insurance companies to cover in-patient treatment for opioid addiction (67%).  
• Americans are more mixed on the importance of funding additional sites that provide safe support for people injecting drugs (47% feel it is important, 39% don’t, and 13% don’t know or skipped the question).

3. Even as the share of Americans using weight loss drugs remains low, use is rising, and a majority of Americans support health insurance covering the cost of weight loss drugs.

• Compared to when Axios/Ipsos started asking in February 2023, twice as many people report using or know someone using prescription drugs for weight loss (8% now vs. 4% in February 2023). 
• Four percent of Americans report trying to get a weight loss drug but being unable to.
• Three in five Americans support health insurance providers covering the cost of weight loss drugs for anyone who wants them.

4. Many Americans say they’ve experienced extreme weather in the past month, though fewer this year than last report experiences with extreme weather, as experiences with poor air equality drop. However, most feel climate change is a threat to human health.

• One in three Americans report that they have experienced extreme weather where they live in the past month. This is down relative to last year when half of Americans reported personally experiencing extreme weather where they live in a USA Today/Ipsos poll. Americans are mixed on whether this summer has been better or worse than last summer for weather-related issues (35% on par with last summer, 32% worse, and 24% better).
• Among those who have experienced extreme weather recently, most (66%) report experiencing extreme heat, followed by half who’ve experienced heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms (48% and 47%, respectively).
• This marks a difference from last year when experiencing poor air quality was more prevalent among people who personally dealt with extreme weather in their communities (27% in 2024 vs. 49% in 2023).
• Two in five Americans feel climate change poses a large or moderate risk to their health, roughly unchanged from the spring. Even more (65%) feel climate change is a threat to human health.
  
  

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  Source: Ipsos