Pew Poll says 72% of Americans know someone is killed or hospitalized due to Covid-19

Based on a large new poll conducted today by Pew, about three-quarters of American adults know someone who has been hospitalized or killed by COVID-19. Most Americans also believe the pandemic remains a serious threat, although it appears that humans have influenced it. political affiliation, poll shows.

Findings taken from new report rpublished Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. A nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 Americans age 18 and older was surveyed online in late August. O various topics related to the pandemic.

72% of participants said they personally know someone who died or was hospitalized due to COVID-19. But for certain minority groups, these rates were even higher. 82% of black respondents and 78% of Hispanic respondents said the same, compared with 70% of whites and 64% of English-speaking Asian respondents, respectively. Both blacks and Hispanics were disproportionate.hit hard by COVID-19, with significantly higher hospitalization and mortality than whites and Asian Americans.

Results are consistent CNN analysis today, an estimated one in 500 Americans have died from COVID-19. At least 660,000 Americans are officially have died– just thousands from the largest official deathAll, ever caused by a pandemic in the United States, 1917-1918 flu. However, taking into account excess mortality, covid-19 has long passed this benchmark.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of people now personal connection with the pandemic, but public opinion on issues such as the need for vaccinations and other restrictions remained more divided.

Overall, 62% of Pew survey participants said they believed the public health benefits of restrictions imposed throughout the pandemic outweighed the costs. But only 38% of Republicans and Republicans-minded respondents said they believed the pandemic currently poses a serious health threat to Americans, compared with more than 80% of Democrats and independent respondents. About 60% of Republicans said they had been vaccinated, compared with 73% of Americans overall. Other groups with relatively low vaccination rates included those without health insurance and white evangelical Protestants (57% each).

“One of the mysteries of public opinion is how little information about a person who has suffered a serious case of coronavirus matters to how people think about the best ways to deal with the outbreak,” says Carey Funk, director of science and society research at Pew, said Gizmodo. “In part, this reflects the fact that people’s personal choices about the COVID-19 vaccine and their political views are much more closely related to their support for vaccination demands or restrictions on community activities.”

The poll was conducted before the Biden administration announced that the federal government would impose or exert strong pressure on businesses across the country to accept the vaccine mandate, but companies and some local cities have already begun rolling out their own versions. 39% said most businesses should require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while another 35% said businesses should at least encourage employees to be vaccinated, but not require them to be vaccinated. Most also expressed support for people who need proof of vaccination before traveling by plane (61%), attending public schools and colleges (57%), and attending sports events and concerts (56%). Support was split in half for vaccine skips to enter restaurants (50%) and negative for shopping (46%).

For the future, simple vaccination was not enough to dissuade many from pessimism. 54% said they fear the worst of a pandemic is yet to come.