Social mood of the residents of Moscow city at the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic (covid-19): possibilities of medical and sociological analysis

A new coronavirus infection, which affected most countries in the world, besides the “direct” risk to the health and socio-economic well-being (stability) of the population, determined the large-scale coverage of states and societies with associated risks, including the observed transformation of social space, the increase in the phenomena of voluntary social isolation and “encapsulation” of part among the population, and the revision of the value of social ties. In temporal terms, the density of the observed changes in the social sentiments of society and the socio-structural characteristics of this period need both retrospective reflection and sociological analysis, as foresight analysis appears to be applicable to the current social situation. This study presents the results of a medical and sociological study (questionnaire survey), implemented during the beginning of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia on a sample of residents of Moscow. According to the study, despite the high level of awareness of Muscovites about the immediate risk and consequences of the coronavirus infection on their health, the respondents are mainly concerned about the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. At the same time, the ideas of the respondents about the “post-pandemic world” include a large-scale economic decline, a violation of the functionality of the health system, and an increase in social conflicts and social disunity in the society. The main difficulties of medical and sociological research (respondent recruitment and data collection) were determined by epidemiological conditions. The study toolkit was developed considering the main trends in the spread of infection in the country and the observed social sentiment of Russians, but the high dynamics of changes did not allow to cover a wider range of issues that became relevant for Muscovites in the self-isolation period (April–May), which determined the understanding of the need for a second wave of research (planned for autumn 2020).