OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the public's likelihood of being willing to use an emergency department (ED) for urgent/emergent illness during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic

METHODS: An institutional review board-approved, cross-sectional survey of a non-probability sample from Amazon Mechanical Turk was administered May 24-25 , 2020 Change in self-reported willingness to use an ED before and during the pandemic (primary outcome) was assessed via McNemar's test; COVID-19 knowledge and perceptions were secondary outcomes

RESULTS: There were 855 survey participants (466 [54 5 %] male; 699 [81 8 %] White; median age 39) Proportion reporting likelihood to use the ED pre-pandemic (71% [604/855] ) decreased significantly during the pandemic (49% [417/855]; P & lt; 0 001); those unlikely to visit the ED increased significantly during the pandemic (41% [347/855] vs 22% [417/855], P & lt; 0 001) Participants were unlikely to use the ED during the pandemic if they were unlikely to use it pre-pandemic (adjusted odds ratio , 4 55; 95% confidence interval , 3 09-6 7) or correctly answered more COVID-19 knowledge questions (adjusted odds ratio , 1 37; 95% confidence interval , 1 17-1 60) Furthermore , 23 4% (n = 200) of respondents believed the pandemic was not a serious threat to society Respondents with higher COVID-19 knowledge scores were more likely to view the pandemic as serious (odds ratio , 1 57; 95% confidence interval , 1 36-1 82)

CONCLUSIONS: This survey study investigated the public's willingness to use the ED during the COVID-19 pandemic Only 49% of survey respondents were willing to visit the ED during a pandemic if they felt ill compared with 71% before the pandemic