Public Acceptance of Measures to Control Infectious Diseases Under Different Scenarios of Severity and Transmissibility.

Public health measures to control future epidemic threats of contagious disease, such as new variants of COVID-19, may be usefully informed by evidence about how acceptable they are likely to be, and the circumstances that condition this acceptance. This study considers how the acceptability of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) might depend on scenarios about the severity and transmissibility of the disease. A telephone survey was conducted among a representative cross-sectional sample of the Spanish adult population. Each respondent was randomly assigned to 1 of 4 possible hypothetical scenarios about the severity and transmissibility of the disease. Participants' responses about the acceptability of 11 NPI under this scenario were analyzed using multivariate regression and latent class cluster analysis. A high risk of severe disease increases the acceptability of mask wearing, social distancing outdoors, lockdown, and isolation of infected cases, close contacts, and the vulnerable. A scenario in which the disease is highly transmissible would increase the acceptability of NPI that restrict movement and isolation. Most respondents would broadly accept most NPI in situations when either the severity or transmissibility was high. This study showed that people are more willing to accept NPIs such as mask wearing, social distancing outdoors, lockdown, and isolation in severe disease scenarios. A highly transmissible disease scenario increases the acceptability of NPIs that isolate. A majority would broadly accept NPIs to counter public health emergencies, whereas 3% to 9% of the population would always be strongly against. • In a pandemic situation, public acceptance of nonpharmacological interventions (NPIs) control measures is important to reduce the spread of the virus. The relationship between different scenarios, sociodemographic factors, and compliance is unclear. • This study aims to explore how the degree of acceptability of NPI might vary according to social and demographic factors and to identify which groups may be more or less willing to accept such measures. • A majority would broadly accept NPI to response to future, possibly unknown, pathogens. However, between 4% and 8% of the population would always be strongly against. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]