Navigating Coronavirus — April 29

More Americans have died from coronavirus than soldiers who died in the Vietnam War, as U.S. cases have surpassed 1 million, 62 days after Trump promised we’d soon be at zero.

NEW POLLING ON ECONOMIC POLICY RESPONSE…

A new poll from Groundwork Collaborative and Roosevelt Institute finds overwhelming support for aggressive government action on a number of fronts. Americans want to prioritize support for workers and families over corporations, and believe action should address structural inequities in our economy, not just address immediate problems caused by coronavirus.

• MEMO on poll findings >> HERE
• DECK on poll takeaways >> HERE
• FULL poll toplines >> HERE

KEY FINDINGS:

• A clear majority believe the government has not gone far enough to address the crisis. 56% say Congress has not gone far enough to address the economic situation vs. 33% the right amount. 70% support doing “whatever it takes” to provide needed assistance, instead of worrying about future debt.

• Americans want immediate action to support health care and frontline workers and provide widespread worker relief through investment, public programs, or cash payments, with support for corporations being rated as a much lower priority. When forced to choose, far more agree on helping people and workers directly over large businesses (74% to 26%). There is clear agreement across party lines (81% Democrats, 76% independents, 64% Republicans).
• The public rejects the false choice between addressing immediate needs and fixing the underlying economic problems that have exacerbated this crisis. By 24 points (62–38%), people agree with both addressing immediate and structural economic problems instead of leaving longer-term problems for another time. 60% of Independents agree.

• Moving forward, voters support additional steps focused on health care and frontline workers as well as struggling workers and families. The most effective ways to address the economic problems caused by the pandemic include:
• 89% support — Free health care coverage for treatment and testing for coronavirus
• 87% — Preventing foreclosures for homeowners with loans and evictions for people in rental properties
• 85% — Creating “hazard pay” for frontline health care workers, first responders, and other essential workers
• 83% — Guaranteeing paid leave, including sick leave and family leave, for all employees
• 82% — Giving more direct aid to state and local governments to prevent cuts to public schools or health care

THE LATEST

Message guidance on the latest developments with President Trump’s handling of the crisis.

1. Trump’s rush to end social distancing is endangering Americans.

Trump ignored experts and pushed governors to quickly end social distancing — now one million Americans have coronavirus and new projections show tens of thousands more will die.

• CNN: “US coronavirus cases surpass 1 million as projections show deaths could rise in coming weeks”
• POLITICO: “A prominent model used by the White House to predict the trajectory of the coronavirus outbreak on Monday revised its estimated death toll sharply upward, and is now projecting the disease could result in more than 74,000 fatalities across the United States by early August.”

The Trump administration continues to threaten people’s safety and Americans can’t trust them to protect our health.

• KANSAS CITY STAR: “After President Donald Trump floated ingesting highly toxic disinfectant as a treatment for the coronavirus, Kansas health authorities say a man drank cleaning product over the weekend. Lee Norman, the state health officer, said the head of the Kansas Poison Control Center reported a more than 40 percent increase in cleaning chemical cases.”
• CNBC: “Pence tours Mayo Clinic without coronavirus mask even though he was told to wear one”
• NEW NAVIGATOR DATA >> In one month, Trump has seen a 14-point drop in his net approval on handling health care. At the end of March he was only at a -2 disadvantage, and now it’s -16.

2. Trump puts the wealthy and corporations first, not the country.

Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program is ripe for fraud while he throws $500 billion to big companies without stopping them from using the money on CEO bonuses or juicing shareholder profits.

• WAPO: “A Federal Reserve program expected to begin within weeks will provide hundreds of billions in emergency aid to large American corporations without requiring them to save jobs or limit payments to executives and shareholders.”

As Trump rushes to end social distancing, he is also putting corporate interests over workers’ safety.

• USA TODAY: “Trump also said he would issue an executive order to shield meat plants from legal liability if they are sued by employees who contract coronavirus while on the job.”
• NEW NAVIGATOR DATA >> By a 21-point margin, Americans believe Trump’s response to the crisis has favored the wealthy/big corporations over workers/middle class.

3. Three months into this crisis, Trump is still failing to get the testing we need.

Dr. Fauci now says it won’t be until the end of May or beginning of June that everyone who needs a test will be able to get one — a far cry from what Trump promised in March.

• POLITICO: “Experts agree the actual number of those infected is likely much greater because of limited testing capacity.”
• HARVARD RESEARCHERS: “We need to deliver 5 million tests per day to deliver a safe social reopening. This number will need to increase over time to 20 million a day to fully remobilize the economy.”

**NEW** NAVIGATOR TRACKING NUMBERS …

TODAY’S POLLING DECK >> HERE

FULL TOPLINES >> HERE

• Trump’s dangerous disinfectant comments left a mark. Americans are hearing more and more negative information about Trump’s handling of coronavirus, and overwhelmingly people note his comments about injecting disinfectants.

• Trump continues to lose trust on coronavirus. By 7 points, congressional Democrats are now more trusted than Trump to handle the response to coronavirus, and in the last 3 weeks, trust in Fauci has gone up 5 while trust in Trump is down 8.

• Americans are far more approving of their governors’ handling of coronavirus than Trump. Some net approvals: DeWine +73, Cuomo +62, Newsom +59, Whitmer +32, Kemp +8, Trump -9.

• Americans who know someone infected with coronavirus are more likely to be concerned by Trump’s failures. They’re 9 points more likely than those who don’t know someone infected to express concerns about Trump downplaying the virus.

—

Navigating Coronavirus is a joint project of Governing for Impact, Groundwork Collaborative, The Hub Project, and Navigator Research.

Know someone else who should be on our list? Have them SUBSCRIBE HERE