UNSTRUCTURED
COVID-19 pandemic has killed thousands and still does. Since its first emergence, people have been having different attitudes and perceptions towards the virus. Perceptions have profound consequences on behavior. For example, patient’s perception of disease threat (disease severity) leads to medication adherence. COVID-19 perception studies guide public awareness efforts or help in understanding behavior, yet limited. This study responds that call, offers a glimpse. A repeated cross-sectional data is collected from 376 randomly selected respondents located all over the world in two periods. Perceived severity (how severe people think COVID-19 and 16 other illnesses are), perceived disease belongingness (rating of COVID-19 and 16 other illnesses as mental or physical) and demographic variables (gender, age and education) are measured. ANOVA, Spearman correlation and scatter analysis are applied. Perceived severity, perceived disease belongingness and age correlate between each other. Participants perceive COVID-19 as severe as Tumor and AIDS (F (2,722) =2.347; p=.096), and as more severe than other 14 illnesses; e.g. Diabetes and High blood pressure. Age wise, participants above 50 age group perceive COVID-19 as more severe than the under 50 (F (1,240) = 10.378, p <.001). A month later, depression surpassed COVID-19 to be perceived as more severe. Majority of respondents attribute COVID-19 as a physical (vs mental) illness, thus consider it severe (vs not severe). Implications could mean; (1) COVID-19 patients might be susceptible to social stigmatization as HIV patients, (2) stay-home obligations are possibly exposing to depression and (3) severity perception is shaping intervention friendly behaviors.