{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03466386554621849, 'fraction_numerical': 0.016456582633053222, 'mean_word_length': 5.104700854700854, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMICS FROM FACULTY OF SCIENCE, PALACKÝ UNIVERSITY OLOMOUC TOWARDS SELECTED ASPECTS RELATED TO THE COURSE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AS AN EXAMPLE OF A SUCCOUR FOR THE STRATEGY AND POLICY MAKERS

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 illness all around the world is enormous and as such is a subject of study for not only medicine but also geography, economics, society, psychology and media. Information, data and materials which are the basis for decisions made by policy and strategy makers are acquired from a vast and chaotic mixture of sources. Those are produced based on opinions of experts from diverse fields, results of statistical or clinical studies, official or covert economic interests, political opinions or media pressure and many more inputs. This study presents a concrete example of a possible instrument for correction for the influence of the potentially misleading view in media or society.Methods: Using a questionnaire, this study heuristically quantifies the perceptions of a selected group of Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc employees towards the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. We presume that overall they possess more experience with critical analysis and recognizing the relevance of the data than the general population.Results: The respondents assume that based on the data they believe to be relevant COVID-19 is less than or comparably dangerous as seasonal flu (34.1 %) or several times or by an order of magnitude more dangerous (54,1 %); implementing wearing face covering inside is in total for the population rather beneficial (83,8 %), or disadvantageous or without any significance (7,5 %), the daily count of infected is relevant (49,7 %), or irrelevant (42,2 %); the exposure rate in the population is relevant (55,2 %), or irrelevant (34,0 %); the percentage of the Czech population that has already been exposed to the virus is 5% or less (46,5 %), or 6% or more (29,2 %). The respondents view the government measures as relevant and sufficient or insufficient (58,9 %), or relevant but excessive (20,0 %), or irrelevant and excessive or absurd (9,2 %). A significant amount of further data has been derived from the results presented in this study.Conclusion: Certain results of the perceptions quantification reflect the predominant media discourse (such as the question of the benefit of wearing face coverings inside), other seem to differ or contradict the discourse (such as the comparison with seasonal flu or the preference for the exposure data over the daily infected count). As a conclusion, it can be ascertained that when correctly implemented a verified survey of a predefined closed group of respondents can be an applicable instrument for a potential correction for the prevailing public and media paradigm.