If you watched just mainstream news coverage, you would think the emergence of new strains of the virus and ongoing seasonal spikes of the Covid virus were paralyzing the country in fear. As it turns out, some people are not buying as much of the news coverage that’s coming out these days, at least according to a recent Gallup poll.
The survey was conducted Nov. 1-16 and reveals that less than half of Americans rated COVID-19 as the “most urgent health issue facing this nation at this time.” That number has gone down from a year ago, which shows that the Wuhan coronavirus is still on the minds of Americans, but they do not view it as urgently as they did a year ago.
47% of Americans earlier in November noted that COVID-19 was the most urgent health problem facing the U.S. https://t.co/9yNAICpVxi
— Gallup (@Gallup) November 30, 2021
Interestingly, the drop was most dramatic among Dems. “In Nov. 2020, COVID-19 dominated independents’ and Democrats’ perceptions of the most urgent issue, with 81% and 70%, respectively, naming it,” Gallup’s report explains. ” During that same time, a slim majority of Republicans (56%) saw Covid-19 as the leading health problem.”
But now, a year later, “Dems’ and independents’ concern has decreased more than 20 percentage points, to 57% and 42%, respectively” while “Republicans’ concern has fallen by less than half as much, to 45%.”
The decrease in concern about the Covid-19 from Dems brought their level of concern closer to the Republicans, and the only important variables that changed were the number of available vaccines and a different pres. in the White House.
Even Still, the 24 point drop for Dems and 28 point drop for independents when compared with the 11 point decrease among Republicans indicates that Republicans were more resistant to the panic that was seen among Dems but has now subdued.
So, does winning the presidential election mean less Dems think COVID-19 is a pressing issue? It seems as though that was a factor. Is it a result of the mainstream news’s all-out war against Pres. Trump and the way his administration handled the pandemic that largely subsided once Pres. Biden took the oath of office? That would also make sense.
The latest data coming from Gallup sheds a light on how Americans — and Dems in particular — react to the narrative propagated and created by mainstream new outlets. It also indicates that, when it came to COVID-19, Republicans were a lot more even-keeled in the way they reacted and processed the threat it posed.
Author: Blake Ambrose
