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In the midst of a global pandemic, prevention methods stand as a crucial first step toward addressing the public health crisis and controlling the spread of the virus. However, slowing the spread of the virus hinges on the public’s willingness to follow a combination of mitigation practices to avoid contracting and transmitting the disease. In this study, we investigate the factors related to individuals’ risk perceptions associated with COVID-19 as well as their general self-assessed risk preferences. We also provide insights regarding the role of risk perceptions and preferences on mitigation behavior by examining the correlation between these risk measures and both the likelihood of following various mitigation practices and total number of practices followed. Although we find both risk perceptions and preferences to be significantly correlated with mitigation behaviors, risk perceptions are correlated with a larger number of practices. Additionally, we find significant heterogeneity in mitigation behaviors across numerous individual and household characteristics. These results can serve as a benchmark for the design and development of interventions to increase awareness and promote higher adoption of mitigation practices.

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ABSTRACT. The radiocarbon content of atmospheric CO 2 ( 14 CO 2 ) has long been of interest to atmospheric and Earth system researchers. Recent improvements in 14 C measurement precision and reduction in sample size requirements have now made it possible to measure  14 CO 2 within existing trace gas sampling networks, most notably as a method to quantify recently added fossil-fuel-derived CO 2 in the atmosphere. At INSTAAR, in collaboration with NOAA/ESRL, ~600 atmospheric samples from around the globe are prepared each year, and that number is anticipated to grow in connection with various monitoring and data assimilation efforts. To accommodate the growing demand and reduce per sample costs, we developed an automated extraction system to quantitatively isolate CO 2 from whole air for AMS 14 C analysis. Twenty samples can be extracted in 1 fully automated run, taking 10-12 hr to complete and requiring only about 1 hr of operator time, a substantial improvement over the manual extraction system. CO 2 is extracted cryogenically by flowing the whole air over a liquid nitrogen trap, after first removing water in a trap at -85 °C. Large volume vacuum lines are used to extract ~30 µmol of CO 2 in less than 10 min, keeping contamination from leaks to a minimum and allowing rapid processing and greater throughput.  13 C measurements on the resultant CO 2 demonstrate that extraction is quantitative, and extractions of 14 C-free air show that no significant modern contamination occurs. Replicate analyses of standard materials indicate that both mean values and precision are comparable to those for the manual extraction system.