page_title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
section_title: Public response
hierarchical_section_title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States / Responses / Public response
caption_attribution_description: English: Flyers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport wearing facemasks on March 6th, 2020 as the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads throughout the United States.
context_page_description: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019. As of August 2020, there were over 180,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. The first confirmed local transmission was recorded in January 2020, while the first known deaths were reported in February. By the end of March, cases had been confirmed in all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all inhabited U.S. territories except American Samoa.
  Within a week after China announced that it found a cluster of infections from the virus in Wuhan, the CDC offered to send them a team of experts to help contain the spread, but they refused the offer. The US outbreak was officially declared a public health emergency on January 31, and restrictions were placed on flights arriving from China. The initial U.S. response to the pandemic was otherwise slow, in terms of preparing the healthcare system, stopping other travel, and testing for the virus. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump downplayed the threat posed by the virus and claimed the outbreak was under control.
  On March 13, President Trump declared a national emergency.
context_section_description: Polling showed a significant partisan divide regarding the outbreak. NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Marist found in their mid-March survey that 76% of Democrats viewed COVID-19 as "a real threat", while only 40% of Republicans agreed; the previous month's figures for Democrats and Republicans were 70% and 72%, respectively. A mid-March poll conducted by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found that 60% of Democrats were concerned someone in their family might contract the virus, while 40% of Republicans expressed concern. Nearly 80% of Democrats believed the worst was yet to come, whereas 40% of Republicans thought so. About 56% of Democrats believed their lives would change in a major way due to the outbreak, compared to 26% for Republicans. A mid-March poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 83% of Democrats had taken certain precautions against the virus, compared to 53% of Republicans. The poll found that President Trump was the least-trusted source of information about the outbreak, at 46% overall, after the news media (47%), state and local government officials (70%), WHO (77%), and CDC (85%). 88% of Republicans expressed trust in the President; 69% of Democrats expressed trust in the media. A CNBC/Change Research Poll conducted in early May—in six states where the November election was expected to be close—found that 97% of Democrats but only 39% of Republicans were "seriously concerned" about the outbreak, and similarly that Democrats were far more likely to report taking health precautions.
  The outbreak prompted calls for the United States to adopt social policies common in other wealthy countries, including universal health care, universal child care, paid sick leave, and higher levels of funding for public health.
  Political analysts anticipated it may negatively affect Trump's chances of re-election. In March 2020, when "social distancing" practices began, the governors of many states experienced sharp gains in approval ratings, and Trump's approval rating increased from 44% to 49% in Gallup polls, although it then fell to 43% by mid-April. At that time, Pew Research polls indicated that 65% of Americans felt Trump was too slow in taking major steps to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. An April 21 Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found a 44% approval rate for the president's handling of the pandemic, compared to 72% approval for state governors. A mid-April poll by the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago estimated that President Trump was a source of information on the pandemic for 28% of Americans, while state or local governments were a source for 50% of Americans. 60% of Americans felt Trump was not listening enough to health experts in dealing with the outbreak.
  Beginning in mid-April 2020, there were protests in several U.S. states against government-imposed lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The protests, mostly organized by conservative groups and individuals, decried the economic and social impact of stay-at-home orders, business closures, and restricted personal movement and association, and demanded that their respective states be "re-opened" for normal business and personal activity.
  The protests made international news and were widely condemned as unsafe and ill-advised. They ranged in size from a few hundred people to several thousand, and spread on social media with encouragement from U.S. president Donald Trump.
  
  By May 1, there had been demonstrations in more than half of the states; many governors began to take steps to lift the restrictions as daily new infections began decreasing due to social distancing measures.
  On April 16, Pew Research polls indicated that 32% of Americans worried state governments would take too long to re-allow public activities, while 66% feared the state restrictions would be lifted too quickly.
  A poll conducted from May 7 to 10 by SRSS, for CNN, concluded that 54% of people in the U.S. felt the federal government was doing a poor job in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in the country. 57% felt the f
caption: Passengers wearing facemasks at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport
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