(CN) — Regardless of political affiliation, most Americans believe the country is more divided now than before the coronavirus outbreak. But citizens of 12 other advanced nations are more inclined to see the virus as a unifying force, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
From early June into August, Pew researchers did phone interviews with thousands of adults from the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
Though the countries’ responses have run the gamut from widespread testing, contact tracing and lockdowns in many European countries to Sweden’s hands-off approach in which it kept schools open and let businesses carry on as usual, none have been spared by Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 1 million people worldwide.
In the U.S., many Republicans believe the threat of Covid-19 is not as bad as it is portrayed by the media and masks do nothing to prevent its spread.
President Donald Trump did not don a mask for a public appearance until July 12 after the disease already killed 135,000 Americans. Now with the number of Americans victims above 227,000, Trump is flying all over the country holding campaign rallies where many attendees are not wearing masks.
Despite the U.S. death toll, the Pew researchers found about three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the U.S. had done a good job handling the crisis, compared with 29% of those who do not support the Trump administration.
That tracks with results from the other 12 countries surveyed, as governing party supporters in all 13 countries were more likely to say their country had done a good job handling the virus than people who do not support the governing coalition.
But the 47% gap in the U.S. was the highest of all the countries. In Australia and Denmark, by contrast, over 90% of respondents said their country had done well dealing with the pandemic and there was only a 5% gap in opinion between supporters and opponents of the governing party.
Throughout 2020, numerous Pew studies have found deep partisan divides in the U.S.
This study was no different, but it did find some common ground among Americans: No matter the political affiliation, most Americans believe the pandemic worsened divisions.
“Large majorities of both groups say the U.S. is now more divided than before the coronavirus outbreak,” the Pew report states. “This is in stark contrast to most of the other countries surveyed, though consistent with past findings in the U.S. showing broad pessimism about the country’s divisions.”
Just 18% of Americans from each party said the country is more united than before the pandemic. By comparison, more than half of all citizens in Sweden, Canada and Denmark said they are more united.
Trump’s Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden is trying to win over voters by focusing on what he calls Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic.
Biden says if elected president, he will ask every governor to make mask wearing mandatory, citing experts who say if 95% of Americans wear masks between now and December it will save 70,000 lives.
Rick Roden, a 34-year-old Republican dairy farmer who lives in West Bend, near Milwaukee, recently told National Public Radio he believes Trump has handled the pandemic the best he could and he respects the president for giving states leeway to tailor their own response.
“Because it shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach,” he said.
Autumn has brought a spike of cases to Europe, where many countries have put restrictions on large gatherings and are mulling another round of lockdowns after such measures stretching from spring into summer helped them get cases to a level their hospitals could manage.
The U.S. too is also moving in the wrong direction with outbreaks popping up across the Midwest and in Texas, where officials in El Paso recently set up a field hospital for Covid-19 patients. As of Monday, 41% of the region’s hospital beds were occupied by people stricken with the disease.
