Covid scepticism takes hold of America

By Ian Silvera, Account Director

If you vote Republican, watch Fox News and live in America, there’s a fairly high probability that you’re a Covid-19 skeptic. That is to say, you cast doubt over the official number of cases (4m) and deaths (140,000) the United States has endured. 

A new Ipsos MORI/Axios poll found that more than six in ten (62%) of Fox News watches said the statistics were overblown, while 59% of Republicans thought the same. Only 9% of Democrats, in contract, shared this skepticism and just 7% of CNN and MSNBC viewers took this view. 

The survey, of more than 1,000 people aged between 17 and 20, offers us a glimpse of a very divided America just months before the country’s general election in November. The results also come after President Donald Trump’s bizarre interview with Axios’ own Jonathan Swan, which saw the Australian reporter call out the President for attempting to claim that the US had a lower death rate than other western countries. 

“Oh, you’re doing ‘death’ as a proportion of cases – I’m talking about death as a proportion of population,” Swan explained to a protesting Commander-in-Chief. “That’s where the US is really bad, much worse than South Korea or Germany, etc.” 

As for Swan’s birthplace, a new harsh lockdown in Victoria has the support of 85% of Australians, according to Newgate Australia’s weekly Covid-19 tracker. 

The survey, of more than 1,200 people between 3 and 5 August, also showed that there was an increasing proportion of people supporting masks, with 73% saying they would probably or definitely wear one where social distancing was difficult (up from 67% the week before) and 86% if it was recommended by the chief medical officer (up from 82%).

The Federal Government is also still benefiting from public confidence, with a large majority (79%) continuing to support the actions of Scott Morrison’s administration as ‘fair and reasonable’. 

In the UK, meanwhile, 60% of the public back Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his economic response to the virus. But on the eve of his Scottish staycation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is lagging well behind on a satisfaction rating of 43%, according to a phone poll from Ipsos MORI/The Evening Standard conducted between 30 July and 4 August. 

He will hope that his reported 10-year-plan, due to be unveiled in the Autumn, will help his popularity back on track.