2 Years After Pandemic Started, What Do Georgians Think: Survey Response

ATLANTA, GA — Over the past two years, COVID-19 has claimed almost 1 million lives in the U.S., sent even more people to hospitals, shuttered businesses and pitted many ideological foes against one another.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus spread a global pandemic two years ago today. Georgia’s first cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed two years ago last week. In that time, the state has recorded more than 1.9 million cases, seen more than 108,000 hospitalizations and 30,104 confirmed deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

A non-scientific survey of 107 Patch readers conducted last month found that the global pandemic had varying degrees of impact here in Georgia.

“It was stressful going from lots of travel and full-time office work to working from home all the time,” one Patch reader and survey participant said. “Now we are back to a hybrid week, which gives flexibility for remote work. Still not back to normal travel level. I'm grateful both me and my husband had jobs that we could keep; I know lots of people that lost work during that time or had trouble keeping businesses afloat. The new normal is still evolving.”

Another respondent said the pandemic forced personal growth in some areas.

“I am more successful because I worked through it and evolved as a person,” the survey participant said. “I listened to GOD and changed companies and ended up making more the last year than I have ever made before. This whole ‘hide from people and be safe’ is teaching people fear. I am not going to live that way and you should not either.”

Few survey respondents personally experienced or were seriously impacted by the virus, with a majority saying they either didn’t contract the virus or had only minor or moderate effects.

That means only about 35 percent of those who took the survey contracted the virus, dating back to 2020 when the pandemic started. And those who said they tested positive, just over 18 percent characterized their cases as “severe,” and nearly 8 percent said their cases were “life-threatening” and were hospitalized.

“It is hard to find the silver lining in the cloud called COVID,” one survey respondent told Patch. “Both my husband I had severe cases and he almost died twice. He has been left with heart issues and I have long-term covid so my strength has been damaged along with my lungs.”

Nearly 35 percent said they lost a friend or family member during the pandemic, and of those who suffered the loss of loved ones, nearly 60 percent said they weren’t able to attend funerals for those who passed away.

“We conducted my grandmother's funeral outside the graveside by the Mausoleum where she was buried,” a survey participant said to Patch.

More respondents described outdoor or masked memorial services.

“I was able to go to the wake only, and then most everyone wore a mask,” one participant told Patch. “He was one of my favorite coworkers and the funniest.”

“I was able to attend since a lot of services were outside and most require masks,” another respondent said.

Most survey participants said they followed masking guidelines and had at least one dose of the vaccine, reflected in 57 percent and nearly 79 percent responses, respectively. Conversely, more than 7 percent of those polled said they never complied with masking guidelines, and more than 21 percent refused to be vaccinated.

“I don't feel it's been tested enough to be sure of its safety,” one respondent said of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Why would I get an experimental vaccine with no long-term proven studies?” another person said.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents who said they have children under 18 years of age told Patch they did not have their children vaccinated and had no plans to do so.

“I would never have them vaccinated because I actually care about the future of my children. Again, this has zero long-term studies on children,” one parent said to Patch.

Of the parents who participated in the survey, more than 79 percent told Patch went to school either partially or completely remote during the pandemic, and more than 65 percent said they supervised the work their children did.

The level of success varied, however. Parents who said their children lost ground made up 34.5 percent, while 27.6 percent said their children gained ground. In the middle were 37.9 percent of the parents who said they saw little change in the progress of their children.

“Not knowing the outcome of everyone going remote in the beginning it was a challenge yet we got through it,” said one parent participant. “Plan for the unexpected so you can move forward in the future.”

Another parent disenrolled a child.

“I have taken my child out of public school in July of 2020 to homeschool due to school online isn’t for her in March through May 2020 and wasn’t doing well in public school to begin with,” the parent said.

Most people continued to work through the pandemic (more than 60 percent), but the majority of those polled who stopped working either retired (67.6 percent of those who left their jobs voluntarily) or were laid off as a result of the economic impacts from COVID-19 (42.1 percent of those who didn’t work continuously). Of those who continued to work, almost all respondents — 95.3 percent — said they were paid through the duration of the pandemic.

Just over 30 percent of workers, a little less than one-third, said their employers never resorted to remote work situations. However, nearly half of the respondents — 48 percent — identified themselves as front-line workers.

“I teach working adults in Mercer's evening program,” one survey participant said. “We fared well both because we had done a lot of instructional design work for online teaching and because the university president leveraged our medical school to make testing accessible, fast, and mandatory.”

Most participants expressed positive results with their financial situations. More than 63 percent said they saw no change to their financial status, while 20.1 percent said they improved their financial situation and 16.2 percent said theirs got worse.

Of those who received stimulus checks, more than 36 percent said they spent all of the money, 13 percent said they split it between spending and saving, and 5 percent said they saved it all.

Opinions about the government responses to and handling of the pandemic were scattershot. On the federal level, 29 percent gave mostly positive responses while 26.5 percent said they characterized the response very negatively. Only about 4 percent had a very positive response.

Statewide, 31.6 percent of respondents gave a mostly positive response, while 25.5 percent offered a mostly negative response. Just over 15 percent had very negative responses, and only 8.2 gave very positive responses.

Local responses fared the best, with 32.2 percent mostly positive and only 13.1 percent mostly negative only 11.1 percent very negative.