Omikron makes more read news about pandemic
The omikron surge has meant that people pay slightly more attention to news stories about covid, a survey from the Pew Research Center shows. The percentage of Americans who follow covid news very closely has increased slightly since a survey in March last year. The new survey was made in mid-January.
The survey also found that that there are large gaps in attention to covid news based on political preferences and views about the pandemic.
37% of adults say they are following news about the coronavirus outbreak very closely, up from 31% in March 2021 and back to the level of interest seen in fall and winter of 2020 – a time when cases were increasing, businesses faced closures and many schools returned to lessons online.
In late March 2020, during the early stages of the outbreak, 57% were following news about the coronavirus very closely and the so far highest level of public interest. Earlier in March 2020, 51% said the same.
”One finding that has remained fairly steady since late 2020 is that Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say they follow news about the outbreak very closely. According to the new survey, 45% of Democrats are paying very close attention to news of the outbreak compared with 30% of Republicans, both slight increases from March 2021. That party divide was not seen early in the pandemic, but it emerged in the summer of 2020 and has been the case since.”
Since the question was first asked in September 2020, Republicans have been far more likely than Democrats to say the pandemic has been controlled as much as it could have. While that is still the case, the gap between the two has narrowed, with Republicans becoming less likely to hold this view and Democrats more likely, the survey shows.
”Four times as many Republicans (64%) as Democrats (16%) now say the pandemic has been exaggerated. At the same time, Democrats are almost four times as likely as Republicans (33% vs. 9%) to say it has been downplayed.”
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