A new poll adds to the consistent message from America: 'It is too soon to reopen'

Despite some widely covered open-the-economy protests in various state capitals, return-to-work boosterism from President Trump, and moves by a growing number of governors to lift a growing number of coronavirus mitigation restrictions, the polling has been pretty consistent: "Most Americans believe it is too soon to reopen," Nathaniel Rakich noted at FiveThirtyEight Friday morning, rounding up recent polling. "Simply put, Americans think the stay-at-home orders are doing a lot more good than bad."

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday morning found the same thing. In the poll, conducted May 6-7, 64 percent of U.S. adults agreed that "opening the country now is not worth it because it will be more lives being lost," versus 34 percent who said it's "worth it because it will keep economic damage to a minimum." There was a sharp partisan divide: 92 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents, and 35 percent of Republicans said reopening isn't worth it.

The survey also found that 77 percent of respondents are concerned about becoming infected with the virus, down 5 percentage points from late April's results. Only 74 percent said they would probably get a "safe and effective coronavirus vaccine" while 25 percent said they were unlikely to get vaccinated. Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic held steady at 57 percent disapproval, 42 percent approval.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Ipsos surveyed 532 adults nationally, and the margin of sampling error in the poll is 4.9 percentage points.