Responding to Extreme Heat in the Time of COVID-19: Results from a three-wave U.S. national survey

The COVID-19 pandemic, with its complexity and global reach, presents unprecedented challenges for public health and emergency management practitioners. These challenges are amplified by interactions between the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme weather, such as extreme heat events. This NSF-funded research aims to better understand the intersecting vulnerabilities, risk perceptions and responses to extreme heat and COVID-19. By assessing experiences, risk perceptions, behaviors, and perceived ability to respond to these conditions, this project advances our understanding of how people cope with and adapt to multiple evolving hazards. In this presentation, we will discuss the results from a three-wave U.S. national survey conducted during the summer of 2020. We will focus on preliminary findings on the heat risk perceptions and experiences, self-reported symptoms of heat stress and COVID-19, household coping capacity, self-efficacy, and protective behaviors undertaken to reduce vulnerability and impacts of extreme heat and COVID-19 on human health.