Report · Apr 17, 2020
American Public Responses to COVID-19 – April 2020
By Matthew Ballew, Parrish Bergquist, Matthew Goldberg, Abel Gustafson, John Kotcher, Jennifer Marlon, Seth Rosenthal, Edward Maibach and Anthony Leiserowitz
Filed under: Messaging
6. Efficacy and Solvability
6.1. Confidence in actions to prevent infection.
The majority of Americans are at least “moderately confident” that they can protect themselves and other people from getting infected by the coronavirus. While the majority of Americans are confident that their local government and the U.S. federal government can limit the spread of coronavirus infections, Americans are more confident in their local government.
6.2. Expectations for the next month.
Most Americans think that the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. and the U.S. economy are both going to get worse over the next month; one in four or more Americans think the spread of the coronavirus (25%) and the economy (28%) are going to get “much worse.”
6.3. Who should do more to limit the epidemic?
The majority of Americans think citizens themselves, the U.S. Congress, and President Trump should be doing “much more” or “more” to limit the spread of the coronavirus. More than one in three Americans think President Trump (38%) and citizens themselves (36%) should be doing “much more.” About half think local government officials should be doing more to limit the spread of the coronavirus, and nearly half say their governor should be doing more. Fewer than half of Americans think that these people/groups are “currently doing the right amount.”
Nearly 8 in 10 Democrats, 6 in 10 Independents and 4 in 10 Republicans say President Trump should be doing more to limit the spread of the coronavirus. More than half of Republicans say President Trump is currently doing the right amount (see Appendix II: Data Tables).
