Who is Most Likely to Voluntarily Comply with COVID-19 Public Health Recommendations?

COVID-19 has caught the world off-guard.  Since December, it has spread as an unexplained respiratory illness originating in Wuhan, China, to affecting more than 700,000 people worldwide in more than 170 countries, at the time of this writing.  In the US, national, state, and local officials are developing policy responses in hopes of constraining the spread of the virus, which will give way to policies that mitigate its impacts and aid in recovery (both in terms of public health and economics) in the coming weeks.  Since early March, the coronavirus pandemic, as it is also referred to, has become the leading news story on nearly every TV network and internet site, as phrases such as “flattening the curve,” “public health emergency,” “social distancing,” and “stay-at-home orders” are now part of the American lexicon and social reality.  Much of the political commentary litigates whether these steps are astute policy choices or overreactions, as we balance public health against social and economic disruptions.