AP-NORC poll: FEW AMERICANS SUPPORT EASING VIRUS PROTECTIONS
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 6 years ago • 20 commentsBy: Thomas Beaumont and Hannah (Washington Post)
Poll after current poll is showing that Americans , in large majorities, support the restrictions on social interaction that have been imposed around the country over the past month. There is a national consensus, despite the chaos and confusion being spread through various media (mainly on the right).
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON — Americans remain overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a new survey finds, even as small pockets of attention-grabbing protests demanding the lifting of such restrictions emerge nationwide.
The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds that a majority of Americans say it won't be safe to lift social distancing guidelines anytime soon, running counter to the choice of a handful of governors who have announced plans to ease within days the public health efforts that have upended daily life and roiled the global economy.
More than a month after schoolyards fell silent, restaurant tables and bar stools emptied, and waves from a safe distance replaced hugs and handshakes, the country largely believes restrictions on social interaction to curb the spread of the virus are appropriate.
Only 12% of Americans say the measures where they live go too far. About twice as many people, 26%, believe the limits don't go far enough. The majority of Americans — 61% — feel the steps taken by government officials to prevent infections of COVID-19 in their area are about right.
About 8 in 10 Americans say they support measures that include requiring Americans to stay in their homes and limiting gatherings to 10 people or fewer — numbers that have largely held steady over the past few weeks.
"We haven't begun to flatten the curve yet. We're still ramping up in the number of cases and the number of deaths," said Laura McCullough, 47, a college physics professor from Menomonie, Wisconsin. "We're still learning about what it can do, and if we're still learning about what it can do, this isn't going to be the time to let people go out and get back to their life."
While the poll reveals that the feelings behind the protests that materialized in the past week or so in battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are held by only a small fraction of Americans, it does find signs that Republicans are, like President Donald Trump, becoming more bullish on reopening aspects of public life.
Just 36% of Republicans now say they strongly favor requiring Americans to stay home during the outbreak, compared with 51% who said so in late March. While majorities of Democrats and Republicans think current restrictions where they live are about right, Republicans are roughly four times as likely as Democrats to think restrictions in place go too far — 22% to 5%.
More Democrats than Republicans, meanwhile, think restrictions don't go far enough, 33% to 19%.
"They'll be lifted, but there are still going to be sick people running around," said 66-year-old Lynn Sanchez, a Democrat and retired convenience store manager from Jacksonville, Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott has reopened state parks and plans to announce further relaxations next week. "And we're going to have another pandemic."
More than 45,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, while 22 million have applied for unemployment benefits since March. It's that economic cost that has led some governors to follow Trump's lead and start talking about allowing some shuttered businesses to reopen, including in Georgia, where many businesses — including gyms, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors — can do so starting Friday. Restaurants there can resume dine-in service next week.
Yet the survey finds that few Americans — 16% — think it's very or extremely likely that their areas will be safe enough in a few weeks for the restrictions to be lifted. While 27% think it's somewhat likely, a majority of Americans — 56% — say conditions are unlikely to be safe in a few weeks to start lifting the current restrictions.
"If we try too hard to restart the economy prematurely, there will be waves of reinfection," said 70-year-old retired medical equipment salesman Goble Floyd, of Bonita Springs, Florida. "I don't think the economy or life will get back to normal until there's a vaccine. It just seems this is so seriously contagious."
The emerging partisan differences are apparent. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is a Republican and unwavering Trump supporter. GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin filed suit Tuesday against the state's Democratic governor after he ordered most nonessential businesses to remain closed until May 26.
The poll finds 59% of Republicans say it's at least somewhat likely that their areas will be safe enough for reopening in just a few weeks, compared with 71% of Democrats who say it is unlikely. Still, even among Republicans, just 27% say that's very likely.
"I haven't met one person at the protests that disagrees with the fact that we need to self-quarantine until April 30," said Matt Seely, a spokesman for the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which sponsored an automobile-based protest at the state's capitol in Lansing last week. "Nobody wants to do the wrong thing. But the solution is not to stay in your home until the last case of COVID is gone."
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,057 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods and later were interviewed online or by phone.
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My personal opinion is that there should be a gradual closely watched reopening of businesses and other societal functions within the next few weeks. I personally know people who are getting very restless. But reality is that the great majority of Americans want this thing (the virus) taken very seriously far into the foreseeable future.
Yesterday Trump tried (fruitlessly) to suggest we are mainly done with this calamity. The majority of Americans are not buying his bs, and never have. Conservative and right wing bamboozling and right wing media notwithstanding.
New Zealand has almost completely contained the virus, with very few deaths.
From Ha'aretz:
Chongqing, where I live, has a population of 32 million, experienced only 6 deaths, and because the people had the common sense and motivation to comply with the lockdown and the other guidelines, things are now pretty well back to normal - stores and restaurants are open and people are now out and about but still careful, wearing masks and practising social distancing.
The public's cooperation is the way to defeat the virus. Ignoring the guidelines too soon... (and I take the completion of that sentence from the words of the American folksong "On Top of Old Smokey") "...will lead you to the grave, the grave will decay you and turn you to dust..." and I'll complete that with my own words: "Not one word that Trump says is one you can trust." The astronomical numbers of infections and deaths in America speak for themselves.
Unless one is fearful of losing a job should their employer open and they are needed, just stay home. They are not saying you HAVE TO go out. Self discipline and personal responsibility are not a bad thing.