Many Americans have lost someone close in pandemic
About 1 in 5 Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, highlighting the division between heartache and hope as the country itches to get back to normal a year into the pandemic.
A new poll from The Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research illustrates how the stage is set for a twotiered recovery. The public’s worry about the virus has dropped to its lowest point since the fall, before the holidays brought skyrocketing cases into the new year.
Only about 3 in 10 Americans are very worried about themselves or a family member being infected with the virus. COVID-19’s toll is staggering, more than 527,000 dead in the U.S. alone, and counting. Communities of color were hardest hit by the coronavirus. The AP-NORC poll found about 30% of African Americans, and Hispanics know a relative or close friend who died from the virus, compared with 15% of White people.
That translates into differences in how worried people are about a virus that remains a serious threat until most of the country — and the world — gets vaccinated. Despite recent drops in cases, 43% of Black Americans and 39% of Hispanics are very or extremely worried about themselves or a loved one getting COVID-19, compared to just 25% of White people.
While vaccines offer real hope for ending the scourge, the poll also found about 1 in 3 Americans don’t intend to get their shot. The most reluctant: Younger adults, people without college degrees, and Republicans.
The poll found two-thirds of Americans say their fellow citizens nationwide haven’t taken the pandemic seriously enough. There are exceptionally wide partisan differences. Most Democrats, 60%, say their local communities failed to take the threat seriously enough and even more, 83%, say the country as a whole didn’t either.
Among Republicans, 31% say their localities didn’t take the pandemic seriously enough, and 44% said that of the country. But another third of Republicans say the U.S. overreacted.