A survey of 503 Israelis, performed in April 2020, found high levels of anxiety and risk for depression; these mental health issues were associated with several stressors connected with the coronavirus and related policies. However, only a small percentage of the sample received mental health care from a professional, with native-born Israelis less likely than recent immigrants to receive such care. Some possible initiatives based on these findings are suggested.

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The emergence and swift global spread of COVID-19 brought increased anxiety worldwide (Santabárbara et al. ( Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 109, 110207, 2021 )). Research regarding the COVID-19 outbreak addressed factors that contribute to anxiety people experienced as they tried to handle the changes in their lives associated with COVID-19 (Holmes et al. ( The Lancet Psychiatry, 7 (6), 547–560, 2020 )). This paper focuses on diagnosis uncertainty as a particular source of anxiety. We use self-reported anxiety measures to understand how different stressors, and particularly how being sick or being unsure if one or one’s close friends or relatives are sick, relate to overall anxiety levels. Five-hundred and thirty-three participants from a country with a stringent COVID-19 testing policy were surveyed in the spring of 2020 on various aspects of their anxiety and risk for depression, as well as on whether they or their friends or family had COVID-19. Analysis of survey results found that anxiety related to uncertainty regarding whether the survey responder or their friends or family were carrying COVID-19 may be even greater than fear of the virus itself. This paper discusses directional issues related to this finding and offers policy implications for decreasing anxiety during pandemics for certain types of communities. In addition to the main findings regarding diagnosis uncertainty and anxiety, this paper’s results also indicate the importance of providing participants with an option for “not sure” in closed questions and imply the increased knowledge that can be gained by analyzing an unsure response independently of “yes” or “no”.

Organizational communication is particularly important during times of uncertainty and turmoil, such as the first few weeks of COVID-19 in the United States. This paper explores the who, what, when, and how of organizational communication during this time, looking at how these factors affected satisfaction with communication and anxiety among a sample of working adults. Through path analysis the paper suggests that having the direct manager communicate, communicating personal messages of support, communicating daily, and communicating via text media are related to higher levels of satisfaction with communication, and in turn with lower levels of anxiety. Individual traits of the employee are also discussed, including the need for affiliation as a moderator on the relationship between communication satisfaction and anxiety. Finally, suggestions are presented regarding how organizations can best leverage communication in novel and uncertain situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.