Poll: Nearly Three-Quarters of Americans Say Worst Is Still to Come from Coronavirus
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Nearly three-quarters of Americans agree on at least one thing about the coronavirus, according to a new poll: The worst is yet to come.
A Pew Research Center survey finds that the majority of Americans don’t see an end in sight for the pandemic, with 73 percent of those polled saying that when it comes to the problems facing the US, the worst still hasn’t happened.
The poll also found that the public is overwhelmingly cautious when it comes to reopening the economy and limiting restrictions on public activity: 66 percent of respondents are concerned that state governments will lift public restrictions too quickly, while 32 percent are worried it won’t happen quickly enough.
As the death toll and case numbers continue to rise across the US, the survey also found that nearly two-thirds of Americans are critical of President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Sixty-five percent say he was too slow to take major steps to address the crisis, and 34 percent think his call to action was quick.
Though Trump is viewed as not acting quickly enough in the early stages of the outbreak, according to the poll, 51 percent of respondents said he was doing an “excellent or good job” in addressing the economic needs of businesses, Politico reported.
That number drops to 46 percent when assessing how the president has addressed the financial needs of Americans who have lost jobs or income amid the outbreak. These numbers are even lower for his job of working with governors, at 45 percent, and meeting the needs of hospitals, doctors and nurses, also at 45 percent. And 42 percent of the respondents believe the president has done a good job providing accurate information to the public.
A little more than half of Americans, 52 percent, said that Trump’s comments about the outbreak are making the situation appear better than it is, whereas 39 percent said he is presenting this situation as it really is. Eight percent of respondents say he is making the situation appear worse than it actually is.
The Pew survey of 4,917 adults was conducted April 7-12 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
