Googling coronavirus appears to have become much less partisan, The Washington Post reports.
During the period between Feb. 13 and March 13, there was a noticeable correlation between a state's support for President Trump and the number of Google searches for "coronavirus" among its residents. Blue states were searching the term twice as much as red states, reports the Post.
That seemingly has something to do with Trump's initial response to the pandemic, which was criticized as too casual. As a result, "Republicans have consistently been much less concerned about the coronavirus than Democrats," writes the Post. However, it's worth noting that, political views aside, two of the states with the highest number of searches — Washington and New York — have the largest counts of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Either way, the Post reports that Trump-supporting states are starting to catch up with their left-leaning counterparts on Google in the last week as the virus has established itself in 49 states, with search rates jumping in both red states and purple states. Blue states remained pretty consistent.
That doesn't necessarily mean everyone's equally concerned, though — an NBC News poll released Sunday shows Republicans still tend to be less worried about the virus than Democrats — nor do Google trends reveal exactly where those searches are leading. Read more at The Washington Post.