Two years after the pandemic, nearly half (43%) of US residents say they feel “bad” about “fellow Americans.” New Yahoo News / YouGov Poll.. Only 10% say they feel good.
It’s easy to lose sight of the extraordinary personal sacrifice that COVID-19 has suffered, as Omicron retreats and most Americans seem eager to move on. However, new research shows that few people in the United States have emerged unharmed.
In a poll of 1,623 adults in the United States conducted March 10-14, more than three in four (76%) personally knew their friends, family, or themselves infected with the coronavirus. I answered that. More than one-third (37%) say they know who was hospitalized with COVID. More than a quarter (27%) say they know someone who died of the disease.
And many Americans continue to face challenges, even if the number of cases plummets and the mask comes off. For example, 1 in 3 (29%) said they knew someone who had a “long COVID” defined as “a series of symptoms that lasted weeks or months” after the initial infection, 6%. Answered that he had a long experience. COVID itself. Together, that’s equivalent to 91 million Americans.
On the other hand, the political, social and psychological consequences of a pandemic are equally widespread. Only 14% of Americans say they are “better” than they were before the pandemic. More than twice (35%) say they are “deteriorating.” Two years later, how Americans feel about the federal government (44% worse, 16% better), their state and local governments (34% worse, 17% better), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (36%). The numbers about what you’re doing, or worse, 22% better) are just as negative.
In a sense, these statistics are not surprising. To date, the United States has reported approximately 80 million COVID cases. More than 965,000 Americans have died of the disease. As Ed Young of the Atlantic recently reported, “Life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased by two years [in 2020 and 2021] — The biggest such decline in almost a century.
“All Americans who died in COVID are gone An average of 9 close relatives are bereaved“Yon explained. “Currently, about 9 million people, 3% of the population, have permanent holes in the world that were once filled by parents, children, siblings, spouses, or grandparents.”
Link such immeasurable losses with the political division that marked this pandemic from almost the beginning. It’s clearly a deep and lasting spillover recipe. Still, it’s calm to see them quantified.
As with all American life, partisanship plays a role here. Republicans in particular appear to be most suffering from public health and institutions, including the federal government (66% worse, 9% improvement), CDC (52% worse, better than 18%), and public health authorities (46% worse,). 19% improvement), home state and local governments (41% worse, 16% improvement), and even vaccines (40% worse, 19% improvement).
(This is despite the fact that the COVID vaccine, estimated by the Healthcare Foundation, prevented approximately 1.1 million deaths and 10.3 million hospitalizations in the United States by the end of November 2021. Commonwealth Fund.. )
Democrats are against it. The pandemic makes me feel better, not sick, about vaccines (52% better, 8% worse), public health authorities (46% better, 12% worse), and CDC (37% better, 16% worse). It is said that it has become. % bad). But they are much more likely to say they feel worse than Republicans and better (9%) about their “fellow Americans” (49%).
Republicans are also much more likely to say personally worse (48%) than Democrats (25%) since the beginning of the pandemic-more Democrats than Republicans know who has been infected. As you say (83% vs 76%), you are hospitalized (45% vs 36%) or killed (33% vs 24%) by the virus.
However, partisanship is just one of many factors that have shaped the direct experience of an American pandemic. Age is different. Older Americans report personal distress and loss much more often than younger Americans, with nearly half (47%) of older people knowing who was hospitalized for COVID. (Compared to only 22% of Americans under the age of 30). The percentage of older people (35%) says they know who died from it (compared to just 15% of Americans under the age of 30).
From now on, Americans seem to be more and more eager to put a pandemic behind them, and of course. Less than half (49%) of Americans said they wore masks “mostly” or “always” last week, down from 62% in early February. Only 38% of parents report that the school system requires students to wear masks. It has decreased from 55% in mid-December.
Only about half (52%) of parents say they instruct their children to wear masks at school, regardless of requirements. This is down from 63% in early October. Only 38% of Americans say, “It’s too early to stop asking for masks in school.” Together, more (47%) said “the right time to stop” (20%), “the time the mask was needed in school too long” (11%), or “in school”. The mask should not have been needed in “. “(16%).
Similarly, currently only 5% of Americans choose COVID-19 as President Biden’s top priority, and only 23% have a pandemic as one of Biden’s top three priorities for two weeks. I think it will decrease by 6 points from the front.
The reason for this is clearly that the majority of Americans (55%) now believe that the worst of the pandemic is “behind us”, while only 17% still say “the worst”. I haven’t come yet. “It also weakens immunity, lifts restrictions, and is also a more contagious Omicron subvariant known as BA.2. Seems to be causing another spike in all European casesAmericans are still optimistic.
Only 1 in 5 (21%) believe that “new variants will be added and worse than what we have already seen.” More than twice as many people think that future variants are “not as bad as they have already seen” (42%) or “no more variants” (8%).
Over time, you will know if such a rosy prediction is correct. But experts say that even if America wants the best, it needs to be prepared for the worst. Whatever version of the virus comes after Omicron is not always “mild” — And the United States needs to take advantage of its current calm to fully fund the Biden administration’s plans to prevent future varieties from disrupting society (both Democrats and Republicans refused).
“We need this money,” he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, pointing out the impending lack of ability to manufacture and widely distribute tests, remedies and vaccines. “Time is not on our side. We need this money right away.”
In any case, many Americans seem to accept dealing with COVID in the foreseeable future and being able to live at risk. In fact, 39% believe that they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to get infected someday, compared to 33% a year ago. However, 60% said they were worried about the virus at the time, while only 47% today said they were the same.
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The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a national representative sample of 1,623 US adults interviewed online from March 10-14, 2022. This sample shows the US Census Bureau, and 2020 presidential (or non-voting) and voter registration status. Respondents were selected by YouGov’s opt-in panel to represent all adults in the United States. The margin of error is about 2.7%.
How does vaccination rate affect modern COVID surges? Check out this explainer on Yahoo Immersive to find out.