5 facts about Black Americans and health care
More Black Americans say health outcomes for Black people in the United States have improved over the past 20 years than say outcomes have worsened.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
More Black Americans say health outcomes for Black people in the United States have improved over the past 20 years than say outcomes have worsened.
Seven-in-ten Hispanic Americans say they’ve seen a doctor or other health care provider in the past year, compared with 82% among Americans overall.
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.
Here’s what Americans said they learned about the development of vaccines and medical treatments and their advice for handling a future outbreak.
Americans offer a lackluster evaluation of how the country has balanced priorities during the coronavirus outbreak. Fewer than half say the country has given the right amount of priority to the needs of K-12 students, public health or quality of life.
Just 20% of the public views the coronavirus as a major threat to the health of the U.S. population and only 10% are very concerned about getting a serious case themselves. In addition, a relatively small share of U.S. adults (28%) say they’ve received an updated COVID-19 vaccine since last fall.
58% of those ages 18 to 29 have experienced high levels of psychological distress at least once between March 2020 and September 2022.
We asked respondents to describe in their own words what rose and fell in importance to them during the pandemic. Here are some of the key themes that emerged.
Americans are increasingly critical of the response to COVID-19 from elected officeholders and public health officials. Positive ratings of public health officials, such as those at the CDC, have fallen 10 points since August. And 60% of U.S. adults say they’ve felt confused as a result of changes to recommendations on how to slow the spread of COVID-19.
As has often been the case on policy questions about how to deal with the pandemic, partisans are far apart in their views on mask mandates.
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