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Axios-Ipsos poll: A harsh verdict for government's coronavirus response

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  john-russell  •  4 years ago  •  5 comments

By:   Sam Baker (Axios)

Axios-Ipsos poll: A harsh verdict for government's coronavirus response
The poll finds a searing indictment of the federal response.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



Sam Baker

Most Americans think the federal government is making the coronavirus pandemic worse, according to the latest installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

Why it matters: This is a pretty searing indictment of the federal response — not only that it has not helped, but that it's part of the problem.

Between the lines: There's a stark partisan divide here.

  • 74% of Republicans say the federal government is making things better, while 80% Democrats say the federal government is making things worse.
  • Most independents (68%) also say the government is making things worse.

Overall trust in the federal government hasn't changed much over the past few weeks, but it's far below the levels we measured in the spring.

  • When the Axios-Ipsos index launched in late March, more than half of Americans said they trusted the federal government to look out for their best interests. This week, it's at just 32%, and has been stuck in the low 30s for months.
  • Americans continue to trust Joe Biden more than Donald Trump to give them accurate information about the virus, though neither breaks 50%.

Yes, but: Despite that lack of faith in the federal government, most Americans are optimistic that this will all be in better shape relatively soon.

  • 57% said they're somewhat or very hopeful that the U.S. will get the pandemic under control within the next six months, while 43% were not too hopeful or not hopeful at all.
  • More educated respondents — those with at least some college — were somewhat less hopeful about a quick turnaround, as were Black and Hispanic respondents.
  • But partisanship was, yet again, the main dividing line: 82% of Republicans and 42% of Democrats were hopeful that things would be under control in six months.

Reality check: It's almost impossible to predict where the U.S. will be in February.

  • There's a chance that at least some people might be receiving a vaccine by then, though that's by no means a sure thing and it's not realistic to expect widespread vaccination anywhere near that early.
  • On the other hand, flu season and cold weather pushing people back indoors both threaten to make the pandemic worse.
  • We've not managed to control the pandemic in the six months we've been doing this so far, and it's notable that Black and Hispanic people — who have borne the brunt of that failure — are less optimistic than white respondents about the next six months.

METHODOLOGY: This survey was conducted Aug. 28-31, among a nationally representative sample of 1,100 adults. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    4 years ago

If Donald Trump was the president he would have prevented all this from happening. 

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
1.1  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @1    4 years ago

How could he have done that? Democrats provide the funding, and comprise at least half of the Federal government, and they haven't been very helpful in finding solutions

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2  seeder  JohnRussell    4 years ago
Proponents of the "herd immunity" approach to the coronavirus pandemic have been arguing that if enough Americans are infected with COVID-19 and survive, the disease will be largely neutralized in the United States — an approach that many medical experts vehemently disagree with, including expert immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci. But according to  Washington Post  sources, this is an approach that is being aggressively pushed by one of President Donald Trump's top coronavirus advisers:  Dr. Scott Atlas , who joined the president's team earlier this month.

Atlas, journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey report in the  Post , "is urging the White House to embrace a controversial 'herd immunity' strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions."

Atlas' approach, Abutaleb and Dawsey explain, "relies on lifting restrictions so the healthy can build up immunity to the disease rather than limiting social and business interactions to prevent the virus from spreading."

The "herd immunity" approach to the pandemic has been used in Sweden, but it has been rejected and sharply criticized by medical experts in many other European countries — which, in contrast to Sweden, embraced comprehensive social distancing policies. Abutaleb and Dawsey note that "Sweden's approach has gained support among some conservatives who argue that social distancing restrictions are crushing the economy and infringing on people's liberties."

Paul Romer, a professor at New York University, told the Post that the Trump Administration "faces some pretty serious hurdles in making" a herd immunity argument — noting, "One is a lot of people will die, even if you can protect people in nursing homes. Once it's out in the community, we've seen over and over again, it ends up spreading everywhere."

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
3  JBB    4 years ago

Trump Failed US BIG TIME

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
4  Greg Jones    4 years ago

So which "expert" are we to believe  jrSmiley_19_smiley_image.gif

 
 

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