Fear, anger and hopelessness were the most frequent traumatic emotional responses in the general public during the first stage of outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic (N = 1,000). The four most frequent categories of fear were determined: (a) fear of the negative impact on household finances, (b) fear of the negative impact on the household finances of significant others, (c) fear of the unavailability of health care, and (d) fear of an insufficient food supply. The pessimistic communications used by the Czech mass media contributed to intensifying traumatic feelings, fears and psychological distress in the general public during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

• MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Mass Media * MeSH
• Infection Control * MeSH
• Coronavirus Infections * MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Optimism MeSH
• Pandemics * MeSH
• Pessimism MeSH
• Psychological Trauma * psychology   MeSH
• Psychological Distress * MeSH
• Aged, 80 and over MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Fear * psychology   MeSH
• Pneumonia, Viral * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged, 80 and over MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH