60 percent of Americans say federal government's coronavirus response is making the pandemic worse

The U.S.'s COVID-19 response has fallen far behind most of the rest of the world's — and many Americans think the federal government is largely to blame.

In contrast to President Trump's false insistence that the U.S. has one of the world's lowest mortality rates from coronavirus, a New York Times analysis published Tuesday shows the U.S. actually accounts for more than its population's share of COVID-19 deaths. And Americans largely recognize the U.S.'s failures, with 60 percent of them saying the federal government's COVID-19 response is actually making the pandemic worse, an Axios-Ipsos poll has found.

Just 39 percent of Americans say the federal government is making America's coronavirus recovery better, the poll found, though there's a sharp divide between parties. Only 19 percent of Democrats say the federal government is making things better, while 80 percent say things are getting worse. Independents largely agree, with 68 percent say the government isn't helping. Meanwhile 74 percent of Republicans say the federal government is improving things, while 25 percent say it's actively worsening the pandemic, the poll found.

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

Beyond just his response, Americans don't even trust Trump to give them accurate information regarding the coronavirus, the Axios-Ipsos poll says. But things aren't much better for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden — 31 percent of Americans say they trust Trump for accurate COVID-19 information, while 46 percent say they trust Biden.

The Axios-Ipsos poll surveyed 1,100 adults from Aug. 28-31, with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.