Joseph D. Schulman*, James N. Cooper, Gary W. Crooks
An electronic survey was conducted in October, 2020 among individuals primarily age 60 and older regarding their degree of confidence of deriving personal protection from 8 different anti-COVID interventions - social isolation, lockdowns, avoiding restaurants, taking MMR vaccine, wearing masks when indoors with others, avoiding hotels, avoiding commercial air travel, and using the first future specific anti-COVID vaccine. Responses were received from 135 persons from many different U.S. regions and 5 foreign countries. Respondents were generally individuals with very high levels of education and personal achievement. Results demonstrated wide diversity of responses regarding each of these interventions. None were strongly supported by a majority of respondents, but those receiving the largest proportions of strong support were social isolation (41%), wearing masks indoors (41%), and using the first anti-COVID vaccine (41%). MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccination was viewed much more positively than negatively but had the highest proportion of individuals who felt they had insufficient data to formulate an opinion. The largest number of strong negative assessments were toward lockdowns (37%). We speculate that the wide variation in perception of possible benefits from the surveyed interventions, most of which have been widely practiced by or imposed upon millions of individuals, in this highly accomplished older population at increased personal risk from COVID-19 reflects the current absence of rigorous scientific proof of the efficacy of any these interventions, and the continuation of the epidemic despite the widespread utilization of most of them.