Anxiety in the face of the first wave of the spread of COVID-19 in Israel: Psychosocial determinants of a "Panic-to-complacency-continuum".

Background And Methods: Based on an established ongoing prospective-longitudinal study examining anxiety in response to COVID-19, a representative sample of 1018 Jewish-Israeli adults were recruited online. A baseline assessment was employed two days prior to the first spread of COVID-19, followed by six weekly assessments. Three classes of general anxiety and virus-specific anxiety were identified: (1) "Panic" (a very high and stable anxiety throughout the spread), (2) "Complacency" (a very low and stable anxiety throughout the spread), and (3) "Threat-Sensitivity" (a linear increase, plateauing at the 5th wave).