Highly educated voters far more satisfied with government COVID response: survey
Two-thirds of Democrats do not believe government overreacted to pandemic, the opposite of Republicans. Majority believes "the worst is behind us," but that's down from two years ago.
Americans are divided on federal and state governments' response to COVID-19 not only by party and sex but also education level, with postgraduate degree holders far more pleased with the response than those with bachelor's degrees or lower, according to a new Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted April 30 and May 1.
Half of postgrads say the government did a "good or excellent" job responding to the pandemic, compared to 28% with bachelor's degrees and 34% with no degrees. Only 19% of postgrads thought it was poor, compared to 44% of bachelor's holders and 37% without a degree.
The most educated also strongly believe "the worst is behind us" on COVID (69%), compared to small majorities for bachelor's holders (51%) and non-holders (54%).
Only a third of voters overall say state and federal governments did a good or excellent job, outnumbered by those who say it was poor (36%), though more disagree (47%) than agree (42%) that "the federal government overreacted in ways that did more harm than good."
A plurality of men (48%) believe the government overreacted while an outright majority of women (53%) believe it did not.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) compare getting COVID at this point to the flu or a "bad cold" and a majority (56%) say the worst of the pandemic has passed, down from 62% who said that in May 2023.
Around a quarter of voters remain outliers in their belief that the worst is ahead (29%), COVID is worse than the flu or a bad cold (25%) and military members who were discharged for refusal to take COVID vaccines should not be reinstated or receive lost wages (27%). A strong majority (63%) favors reinstatement and receiving lost wages.
The closest divide on whether the worst is behind us (45%) or not (41%) is voters under 35.
More than twice as many Republicans (52%) as Democrats (21%) believe the government did a poor job with COVID, and the GOP also heavily favors the worst-is-behind-us view (67%) while Democrats only agree by a plurality (47%).
The parties are mirror images on whether the government overreacted to COVID: two-thirds of Republicans say yes, two-thirds of Democrats say no.