Ballot: Most Individuals Fear Political Strain Will Result in Untimely Approval of a COVID-19 Vaccine; Half Say They Would Not Get a Free Vaccine Permitted Earlier than Election Day
Republican and independent voters see the economy as their main problem; List of top coronavirus and racial relations Democrats
Most Americans (62%) fear that political pressure from the Trump administration will cause the Food and Drug Administration to approve a coronavirus vaccine without making sure it's safe and effective, according to the latest KFF Health survey Tracking revealed. This includes the majority of Democrats (85%) and Independents (61%) and a third of Republicans (35%).
Additionally, about four in ten say the FDA (39%) and CDC (42%) pay “too much attention” to policy when it comes to reviewing and approving treatments for coronavirus, or issuing guidelines and recommendations .
The poll comes as President Trump and others in his administration and for his re-election campaign suggested that a vaccine could be ready in the coming months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently asked states to be ready to distribute a vaccine by November 1, just two days before the 2020 elections.
Most Americans (81%) – including the majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – say they don't believe a vaccine will be widespread before the presidential election.
If a vaccine were approved before Election Day and made freely available to anyone who wanted it, around half (54%) would say they would not want to be vaccinated, while 4 in 10 (42%) would say they would you want to be vaccinated. Most Independents (56%) and Republicans (60%) say they wouldn't get the vaccine, while half of Democrats (50%) would.
"Public skepticism about the FDA and the process of approving a vaccine weakens public confidence even before a vaccine is launched," said Drew Altman, President and CEO of KFF.
The survey also shows a decline in public confidence in the country's public health facilities and officials to provide reliable information about the coronavirus, especially among Republicans.
Overall, around two in three adults say they see Dr. Anthony Fauci (68%), director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the CDC (67%) have at least an "appropriate level" of trust. About half (53%) say Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House. Half say they trust Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden (52%), while four in ten say President Trump (40%) say the same.
The proportion of adults who say they trust the CDC has fallen 16 percentage points since April, with the largest drop being among Republicans (now 60%, down from 90% in April).
The portion that states Dr. Trusting Anthony Fauci has fallen 10 percentage points overall since April, due to a 29 percentage point drop in Republicans (now 48%, down from 77% in April) as President Trump publicly disagreed with some of his public health advice. In contrast, Dr. Birx had high levels of confidence among Republicans (70%) but lower levels of confidence among Democrats (44%).
Most citizens are well aware of the key facts about the coronavirus, although nearly half (48%) have at least one in six misunderstandings, including 20% wrongly saying that wearing a face mask is a health risk and 16% wrongly saying , Masks do nothing to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
"The politicization of fundamental facts such as the question of whether a mask can prevent the spread of coronaviruses creates an environment in which misinformation can be easily exchanged and believed," said Mollyann Brodie, executive director of public opinion and polling research at the KFF.
Six months into the pandemic, public views are shifting in a more optimistic direction:
- Even stocks (38%) now say the "worst is behind us" and that "the worst is yet to come," the most optimistic outlook since the pandemic began. The proportion that says “the worst is yet to come” is around half what it was in early April (74%).
- President Trump now gets slightly better marks for his handling of coronavirus, although a slight majority (55%) still oppose it, compared to 62% in July.
Partisan difference on issues that voters consider most important in November
Two months before election day, the poll shows a sharp party-political divide on the issues that are important for the election.
The economy is overwhelmingly the main topic for Republican voters. More than half (53%) choose it as the most important issue, with criminal justice and the police in second place (23%). The economy is also the main topic for independent voters (29%), followed by criminal justice and policing (20%) and the coronavirus outbreak (19%).
In contrast, a third of Democratic voters (36%) say the coronavirus outbreak is their main problem, followed by racial relations (27%). Outside of the coronavirus, healthcare and business are third on the Democratic list (14% each).
“Democrats and Republicans have two different choices. For Democrats, it's about Covid and race. For Republicans, it's economy and violence, ”Altman said. "And health care has crossed the list of topics for everyone."
For all voters, the economy is the main topic (32%), followed by coronavirus (20%), criminal justice and policing (16%) and racial relations (14%). Health care had been a major topic during the busy season, but outside of the coronavirus, health care is now fifth (10%).
Swing voters – the critical group (24% of all voters) who have not yet fully made up their minds – rate the issues similarly, with the economy leading the way (35% of swing voters), followed by criminal justice and the Policing (17%), Coronavirus (15%), Racial Relations (14%), and Health Care (11%).
The shift in the electoral mix likely reflects recent events, including police shootings of unarmed Black Americans and subsequent protests and counter-protests, some of which resulted in violence and have recently been a major topic of President Trump's re-election campaign.
The proportion of voters who say violence by demonstrators is a “major problem” in the country has increased by 15 percentage points since June to stand at 52%. This is slightly less than the proportion of voters who say racism is a “big problem” (58%), while fewer (43%) say that police violence against the public is a big problem.
This increase is largely due to Republican and independent voters. Most Republican voters (81%) and half of Independents (52%) said violence by demonstrators was a major problem, compared to a quarter (25%) of Democrats. In contrast, most Democratic voters (67%) say police violence is a major problem, while only a minority of Republicans (20%) and four in 10 independents (39%) agree.
The survey, designed and analyzed by KFF public opinion pollers, was carried out from August 28 to September 3 among a nationally representative sample of 1,199 adults with free choice. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish by landline (295) and mobile phone (904). The margin of error in the sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the entire sample. Results based on subgroups may have a higher sampling error rate.
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