Americans Praise Fauci But Share Trump’s Desire to Get Going

Americans give Dr. Anthony Fauci high marks for his performance during the coronavirus crisis but disagree with his continuing go-slow approach to reopening the country.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 65% of American Adults rate Fauci’s performance as good or excellent. Just 11% say he’s done a poor job. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Similarly, 68% share a favorable opinion of the immunologist who is perhaps the most visible member of the Trump Administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, with 42% who view him Very Favorably. Only 20% regard Fauci unfavorably, and that includes just eight percent (8%) with a Very Unfavorable view.

Fauci at a Senate hearing last week cautioned against too-rapid reopening of the country, prompting rare public disagreement from President Trump. But 49% of Americans agree with Trump’s statement in response to Fauci’s testimony: “We have to get the schools open. We have to get our country open. We have to open our country. Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible. We can’t keep going on like this.” Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree with the president. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted May 14 and 17, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Republicans are a lot more eager than Democrats to emerge from the coronavirus lockdown even if it means more sickness and death. But most voters regardless of party affiliation agree America can’t remain like this indefinitely.

The older the American, the more likely they are to praise Fauci and his performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger adults are more likely to agree that the country needs to get going.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of men agree with Trump that we need to move as quickly as possible, a view shared by just 45% of women.

Democrats are far more likely to shower praise on Fauci than Republicans and adults not affiliated with either of the major political parties.

While 66% of Republicans and a plurality (47%) of unaffiliated adults share Trump’s desire to get the country moving again, only 37% of Democrats agree.

Voters agree government money isn’t enough to counter the coronavirus economic crash, but most Democrats think $2,000 monthly payments to Americans who earn less than $120,000 a year are necessary even as the lockdown begins to break down.

By mid-April, 40% of Americans said they or someone in their immediate family had lost their job because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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