CBS News poll analysis: After two years, most say COVID divided the country
Over the last two years, the country has witnessed illness and lives lost as a result of the COVID pandemic, but there is another lasting collective impact: division. Fighting the virus is an effort that Americans say has divided the country, not united it.
The splits in public opinion we see today have been part of the lasting divisions during the pandemic, between those most concerned and taking steps — getting vaccinated, wearing masks, supporting restrictions — associated with that concern, and the fewer who are not as likely to take those steps, oppose many restrictions, and are less concerned.
Primarily Americans say the pandemic divided America along political lines, between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, over health policies and over different levels of trust in information.
We've tracked these differences in our polling over the last two years as well, and the public's observations match what we've seen — though we should add the divisions have never been an even split. Most Americans have been concerned about the virus, most report getting vaccinated, most approach the outbreak seeing a collective responsibility to protect themselves and others and most think medical professionals offered the best information they had at the time, even if people often found it confusing.
However, there has long been about a quarter with a staunchly different approach to the coronavirus: less concerned, unvaccinated and believing each of us is responsible only for protecting ourselves.
And from the outset of the pandemic, political partisanship has divided views. Throughout the last two years, Republicans have been less concerned about the virus and less supportive of restrictions and mandates than Democrats. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to report being vaccinated, but it is important to note that a majority of Republicans are vaccinated.
As Americans look back, these divisions extend to views about who made things better and who made them worse during the outbreak.
Democrats especially feel those who adhered to mask requirements and those who got vaccinated helped make things better, with Republicans less likely to feel that way. Over the last two years, we've seen a lower level of trust of the scientific community and government agencies like the CDC among Republicans, and we find they are more inclined to say these entities made things with the coronavirus worse, not better, particularly those Republicans who report not being vaccinated.
There is universal agreement that doctors, nurses and first responders made things better.
The COVID vaccines
Few aspects of the pandemic have spurred debate among Americans more than the coronavirus vaccines and vaccine mandates. While more than half consider the development of the vaccine to be a big accomplishment, behind that, there are differences in views. Fewer than half of Republicans consider it a big accomplishment, and most Americans who report not having received a coronavirus vaccine shot do not consider it an accomplishment at all.
As Americans look back, overall they think the vaccine requirements did more good than bad, with most saying the requirements saved lives. Republicans, however, are about as likely to say vaccine requirements put lives at risk as saved lives, and they are more likely to say these requirements have hurt the economy than helped it.
The Biden administration
President Joe Biden continues to get more positive marks on the job he is doing on the coronavirus relative to other issues like the economy and inflation. But these positive ratings are down from the heights we saw earlier in his presidency.
More Americans say overall U.S. efforts to contain the virus are going well than say Biden is doing a good job handling it. Some of this is because views of the president are seen largely through a more partisan lens.
Among Republicans who think U.S. efforts to contain the virus are going well, two-thirds say Mr. Biden is doing a bad job handling it. And overall, most Republicans feel the coronavirus policies put in place by the Biden administration have made the situation with coronavirus worse than it would have been, not better.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,088 U.S. adult residents interviewed between March 8-11, 2022. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as to 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is ± 2.6 points.
