Two Years Into the Pandemic, Americans Inch Closer to a New Normal
Americans in 2022 find themselves in an environment that is at once greatly improved and frustratingly familiar.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Americans in 2022 find themselves in an environment that is at once greatly improved and frustratingly familiar.
Those on the political right are more likely to say there should have been fewer public activity restrictions during the COVID-19 outbreak.
53% of parents of K-12 students say schools in the United States should be providing a mix of in-person and online instruction this winter.
The pandemic and its effects on society became a pervasive part of the media narrative about Joe Biden’s first 60 days in office.
In Americans’ views of some aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak, there is little, or only modest, partisan difference.
Publics disagree about whether restrictions on public activity, such as stay-at-home orders or mandates to wear masks in public, have gone far enough to combat COVID-19.
Trust in scientists and medical scientists has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, with 29% of U.S. adults saying they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public. This is down from 40% in November 2020 and 35% in January 2019, before COVID-19 emerged. Other prominent groups – including the military, police officers and public school principals – have also seen their ratings decline.
The biggest takeaway may be the extent to which the decidedly nonpartisan virus met with an increasingly partisan response.
As the U.S. battles COVID-19, effective contact tracing has proven to be a major challenge for those trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Just 9% of the public says it will be less than six months before most public activities operate about as they did before the outbreak.
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