The chapter is theoretically framed using theories of risk perception and work on the risk society. We aim at answering two fundamental questions: which factors did Americans and Finns considered to be the main reasons for the pandemic spread and were there differences in the perceptions of Americans and Finns at different points in the early stages of the pandemic. We compare the perceptions of several implicit causes ranging from the immigrants and migration to business travel, lack of citizen responsibility, and ineffective political decisions. Since social response to the COVID-19 pandemic were highly politicized in Western countries, and especially in the United States, our primary focus is on the effects of political party preference. The findings show that the effects were strongest when analyzing the belief that migration and immigration played a role in the pandemic’s cause and spread. In the United States, supporters of Republican Party were more likely to perceive migrants and immigration as a cause for pandemic. In Finland, supporters of the coalition of parties in power at the time were less likely to do so. Temporal changes in the effects were also detected. Specifically, political preference was a weaker predictor of Americans’ perception in fall than it had been in the spring. Our findings highlight how citizens do not believe all news coverage and claims about the disease, but instead political beliefs and life experiences have an important filtering effect on their interpretations. These interpretations appear to be phenomena that can be controlled at the national level.