AND CLAUDIA DEANE
February 12, 2025
Source: PEW Research
Photo / Image Source: Unsplash,
Did the nation’s leaders and institutions meet the moment?
With the benefit of five years of perspective, Americans offer a mixed assessment of how their leaders and institutions responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those on the front lines – hospitals and medical centers – stand out for the positive ratings they receive for their performance.
About half of U.S. adults or fewer now say their state elected officials (49%), Joe Biden (40%) and Donald Trump (38%) did an excellent or good job responding to the pandemic. A slim majority (56%) give positive ratings to public health officials, like those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Only local hospitals get a full-throated approval from Americans: Looking back, 78% say medical centers in their area responded well to the pandemic.
Again, there are huge partisan differences on several of these questions. For example, 79% of Democrats say public health officials’ response was excellent or good, while 35% of Republicans agree. Republicans’ positive ratings of public health officials fell 58 points between spring 2020 and the start 0f 2022.
Restrictions on public activity were a central component of officials’ response to the pandemic across levels of government.
Asked about their assessment today, fewer than half of U.S. adults (44%) say the restrictions on public activity in their area during the pandemic were about right. Another 38% say there should have been fewer restrictions in their area, while 18% say there should have been more.
At the beginning of the pandemic, most Democrats and Republicans agreed with newly implemented restrictions on public gatherings and nonessential businesses. But these views changed quickly as the pandemic wore on, with continuing impacts on the economy, schools and other aspects of daily life. Republicans, in particular, became increasingly critical of activity restrictions.
Now, looking back, 62% of Republicans say there should have been fewer restrictions on activity in their area, while just 15% of Democrats share this view. A majority of Democrats (59%) think their local officials got it about right, but about a quarter say there should even have been more restrictions than there were.
When it comes to K-12 public schools, 55% of Republicans say schools in their area stayed closed for too long, while just 17% of Democrats agree. About half of Democrats (49%) say schools in their area were closed for about the right amount of time.
More broadly, the outbreak cast a spotlight on the role of scientists and scientific information. During the pandemic, Americans’ confidence in scientists to act in the public’s best interests fell: 87% expressed at least a fair amount of confidence in April 2020, but that number dropped to 73% in October 2023. This overall decline was driven by a sharp drop in the share of Republicans who express confidence in scientists to act in the public interest (from 85% to 61%).
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