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Americans are losing confidence in their government's ability to respond to the coronavirus.
- Public opinion has shifted significantly since the beginning of March over the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, with a majority of Americans now saying they think the US government is not so or not at all prepared to handle the outbreak, according to a new Insider poll.
- That number is now at 54%, up from 40% when the same question on government preparedness was asked during the first week of March.
- 60% of Americans now say they are very concerned or extremely concerned the coronavirus will have an impact on their day-to-day lives, up from 26% the first week of March.
- Just 15% of Americans think the government is very or extremely prepared to handle COVID-19 cases.
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Since the beginning of March, Americans are taking the coronavirus much more seriously and have less confidence in their government's ability to respond effectively, according to a new Insider poll.
Now a majority of Americans - 54% - say the government is not prepared to contain the outbreak and oversee care for the most severe cases.
That's up 14% from the first week of March, when only 40% of respondents came to that assessment.
Insider/Ruobing Su
Americans are taking the coronavirus much more seriously since the first week of March.
Just 15% of the 1,136 Americans polled on SurveyMonkey on March 25 said they think the US government is extremely or very prepared to handle COVID-19 cases.
Another major swing appears in how concerned Americans are that the coronavirus will impact their day-to-day lives.
60% now say they are extremely or very worried the virus will have an impact on their day-to-day lives, up from just 26% during the first week of March.
Only 10% now say it won't have much of an impact.
Poll respondents to Insider also said they trust Dr. Anthony Fauci and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo the most when it comes to the coronavirus, and that they are mostly okay with the Senate's $2 trillion stimulus package to respond to the economic damage done by the outbreak.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,136 respondents were collected March 25, 2020, a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.
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