Perceived Risk of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Public Worry and Trust

In late December 2019, an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was started in Wuhan, China, and quickly reached the other countries of the world. In comparison with the other members of coronaviruses family such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, COVID-19 appears to have a lower fatality rate (virulence). However, the high transmission rate of this virus, as well as the lack of vaccines and certain pharmaceutical treatments for COVID-19 have posed serious challenges to the control of the disease spread.