WASHINGTON — The Covid-19 pandemic has brought more than 20 months of uncertainty. And through the mask mandates and vaccine debates, Americans have developed a complicated and somewhat surprising set of voices they trust on the virus, according to the latest NBC News poll.
The poll asked a simple question, “In general, do you trust what _____ has said about the coronavirus or not?” and then subbed in a series of possibilities into that blank space.
Through all the names and groups mentioned, one thing jumps out in the data: Americans seem more likely to trust people they know directly or people with whom they have direct contact. For instance, the group that ranked most highly in the poll on this question was “your employer.”
Overall, nearly 6 in 10 employed Americans said they trusted what they heard about Covid from their employer.
And, in a country where partisan divides exist on almost everything, there was at least some unanimity on this point. Roughly 70 percent of Democrats said they trusted their employer on the virus and 53 percent of Republicans said the same thing. Independents were a bit more suspect, with only 40 percent saying they trusted their employer on Covid, but that was still far more than the 25 percent who said they did not trust them.
Among parents, many of whom have struggled to balance life and childcare under Covid, there was also trust in what their local school said. More than half of all parents said they trusted their child’s school on the virus, and the figure was 50 percent or more among Democrats and Republicans.
Contrast those numbers to the trust figures for the leading experts on the pandemic in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On the whole, 44 percent of those surveyed said they trusted the CDC on the virus, while 43 percent said they did not trust the agency.
And here the familiar partisan divide was apparent. Nearly 70 percent of Democrats said they trusted the CDC, while only 22 percent of Republicans said they did. Independents were in between, with 37 percent saying they trusted the CDC.
There are a number of factors that could be driving that split. Democrats might see the CDC as an arm of the executive branch of government that they control, while Republicans might see the reverse. And Republicans generally seem more skeptical of the dangers of Covid and may disapprove of the CDC’s handling of the pandemic.
Aside from partisanship, however, those numbers paint a remarkable picture. On the whole, the public is more likely to trust the non-experts that employ them and those who teach their children than they are to trust the government agency that is studying the virus.
Critics might note that the CDC’s guidance has changed at times since March 2020, but some of that was bound to occur as the pandemic changed and scientists learned more about the virus. It may be that people are more likely to trust their employers or the local schools because they feel they are all in the same boat, trying to navigate through unknown territory and sometimes unclear guidance. Regardless, the gap between trust in non-expert and expert sources of information is significant.
The poll also reveals some notable differences of opinion on the two White House occupants who have dealt with the pandemic, President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.
The numbers for Biden follow a well-known pattern.
Overall, 37 percent of respondents said they trust what Biden has said on the virus. But the numbers shift through a partisan lens. A large majority of Democrats, 73 percent, say they trust what the president has said. Among Republicans only 8 percent trust Biden. And the figure for independents is between those two figures, but very much on the low end, with only 21 percent trusting the president.
Those numbers aren’t out of line with typical appraisals of political leaders in either party, especially considering the struggles the nation has had with Covid over the past year. Partisans back their side and independents are unhappy.
But when the question turns to Trump, there is a significant difference on trusting what he has said about the virus.
The total trust figure for Trump is quite low, at only 21 percent. And the Democratic number is predictably in the cellar, at 4 percent, with the figure for independents not much higher at 13 percent. However, the figure for GOP respondents is unexpected. Only 39 percent of Republicans say they trust what Trump has said on the virus.
To be fair, that’s much higher than the number of Republicans who say they cannot trust what he’s said, 25 percent, but it’s still out of line with the broad support for Trump among Republicans when he was president.
And those low numbers aren’t just among Republicans. Even among those who say they voted for Trump in 2020, only 42 percent say they trust him on the virus. That’s a fairly remarkable number and it may be a revealing one as well.
The pandemic has challenged the nation in many ways over the past 20 or so months, rattling the economy as well as the healthcare and education systems.
But areas of agreement in this poll, on trust of local sources and distrust of Trump, suggest something unusual recently: small slivers of bipartisan consensus on a serious issue. In the world of 2022 politics, that might be considered a positive sign.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
