U.S. poll shows fair amount of common ground on preventive COVID-19 steps

TallGuyJohninBKK · Monday at 01:32 PM

A new poll from researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation shows that, despite news coverage that painted Americans as deeply divided on COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including mask wearing, there was significant common ground on these strategies in hindsight.

During the pandemic, "The media made it seem there were huge swaths of population that were unreachable,” said Gillian SteelFisher, PhD, an author of the report and director of global polling in the Harvard Opinion Research Program and principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School in an interview.

Masking in businesses gets 70% support

SteelFisher said the polling results actually show a much more nuanced and cohesive understanding of public health efforts. Of note, most Americans said four main pandemic strategies were "generally a good idea," including mask requirements in stores and businesses (70%), healthcare worker vaccination requirements (65%), indoor dining closures (63%), and K-12 public school closures (56%).

Only 20% of those polled said all four main strategies were "generally a bad idea," while 42% said all four were a good idea and 37% said only some were a good idea.

(more)

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/us-poll-shows-fair-amount-common-ground-preventive-covid-19-steps

Poll: Majority of Americans say key COVID-19 policies were a good idea—but views of individual policies vary

Those with negative feelings express concerns about policies staying in place for too long, economic impacts, political influence, and lack of personal choice

June 17, 2024

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Views on these pandemic policies vary by subgroup characteristics, including political party affiliation, race, ethnicity, and metropolitan status. The percentage who say all four policies were generally a good idea:

Democrats (71%); Independents (44%); Republicans (18%)

Black adults (62%); Hispanic/Latino adults (55%); white adults (32%)

People living in urban areas (55%); suburban areas (39%); rural areas (29%)

Additional findings from the poll show that Americans have differing beliefs about how severe the threat of COVID-19 was early on in the pandemic. There are very few total COVID-deniers, with only 3% saying COVID-19 was not a health threat to anyone early in the pandemic. But many say COVID-19 was not a serious health threat to everyone early on. This includes 14% who say it was a serious health threat only to people who are very old or frail and 45% who say COVID-19 was a serious health threat to more people, including people who are very old or frail as well as those with underlying medical conditions. About one third (37%) say it was a serious health threat to everyone early on.