Facing new fears during the COVID-19 pandemic: The State of America’s mental health

•Examines the intersection of distress, location (region), social vulnerability, and mental health consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic.•National sample (n = 10, 368) of adults surveyed during the last week of March 2020 and post-strata weighted.•Fear highest among socially vulnerable and unequally distributed across regions of the U.S.•Fear, worry and social vulnerabilities are significantly associated with anxiety/depressive symptomatology, net of social vulnerabilities.•Subjective assessments of distress are important factors related to mental health, even after controlling for location and group differences. COVID-19 is rearranging our society with fear and worry about the novel coronavirus impacting the mental health of Americans. The current study examines the intersection of COVID-19 fear, worries and perceived threat with social vulnerabilities and mental health consequences, namely anxiety and depressive symptomatology. Using an online platform, a national sample (n = 10, 368) of U.S. adults was surveyed during the week of March 23, 2020. The sample was post-strata weighted to ensure adequate representation of the U.S. population based on population estimates for gender, race/ethnicity, income, age, and geography. Fear and worry are not distributed equally across the country; rather they are concentrated in places where the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is found. Additionally, data highlight significant differences in the subjective perception of distress across groups with varying social vulnerabilities. Women, Hispanics, Asians, families with children under 18, and foreign-born respondents reported higher levels of subjective fear and worry compared to their counterparts. Finally, even after controlling for social vulnerability, subjective assessments of distress were positive, and significantly related to anxiety and depressive symptomatology; prior mental health research from China and Europe confirm what others have begun to document in the United States. This preliminary work provides practitioners with a glimpse of what lies ahead, which individuals and communities may be the most vulnerable, and what types of strategic interventions might help to address a wide range of mental health consequences for Americans in the months and years ahead.