Alex Brandon/AP
President Donald Trump holds up a picture as he listens during a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, left, Associate Director for Laboratory Science and Safety Steve Monroe, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, about the coronavirus at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Friday, March 6, 2020 in Atlanta.
- 46% of Americans say they do not feel the US government is sufficiently prepared to handle coronavirus, according to a new Insider poll. That's up six percentage points from an identical poll in late February.
- The Insider poll also found 65% of Americans are concerned on some level about how coronavirus will impact their day-to-day lives.
- The Trump administration has faced widespread criticism over its response to coronavirus, particularly over the lack of testing kits.
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Americans are increasingly likely to say they don't feel the US government is prepared to handle the novel coronavirus, according to a new Insider poll, and also somewhat more likely than they were about a week ago to say they're concerned the virus will have an impact on their daily lives.
Insider asked Americans if they feel the US government is sufficiently prepared to handle coronavirus cases. 24% said "not so prepared," while 22% said "not at all prepared."
In short, almost half of the US (46%) is not particularly confident in the federal government's ability to handle the new coronavirus. When polled on the same question in late February, 40% of Americans said they did not feel the government is prepared.
Skye Gould/Business Insider
Meanwhile, between February 28 and March 5, there's also been a slight uptick in how many Americans say they're concerned coronavirus will have an impact on their day-to-day life. On March 10, the New York governor announced schools were closing in New Rochelle for two weeks amid a coronavirus outbreak there, and New York National Guard troops would assist with the response.
In late February, 61% of Americans said they were extremely/very or somewhat concerned about how the virus would affect their daily lives. Nearly a week into March, that was up to 65%.
The Trump administration has faced criticism over the slow rollout of testing kits for the novel coronavirus, which has hurt the government's ability to comprehend the scale of the outbreak across the US. Simultaneously, President Donald Trump has routinely contradicted his advisers on coronavirus, while attempting to downplay its impact.
Worldwide, more than 116,000 people have been infected and over 4,000 have died. In the US, 27 people have died from coronavirus, and there have been more than 760 cases reported.
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 1,062 respondents were collected March 6-7 2020, a margin of error plus or minus 3.08 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.