Washington ‘Policy Elites’ Believe China Doing More to Stop Coronavirus than Trump: Survey

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A new survey of Washington elites found more respondents believe China has done more to contain the coronavirus than President Donald Trump.

Of 156 respondents described as “policy elites” in the survey conducted by YouGov and released Wednesday, 84 percent said the Executive Branch should have “done more” to prevent the virus from spreading, compared to 81 percent who believed the same about China.

China notoriously refused to allow international health experts to visit the country for several months after the first known cases emerged in Wuhan in December. When a Wuhan ophthalmologist, Dr. Li Wenliang, issued a Dec. 30 warning about the coronavirus, police ordered him to stop “making false comments” and began investigating him for “spreading rumors.” Officials said Wenliang died from the virus in February.

The Trump administration has faced criticism for a slow response to the pandemic. Trump himself has faced criticism for refusing to advocate more vigorously for a nationwide lockdown among state governors and for failing to wear a mask in public.

YouGov additionally found that 61 percent of respondents believed the federal government was too focused on the economy rather than on responding to the virus, with 21 percent saying the balance was “about right.” Those figures came despite 46 percent saying they believed employment rates would suffer for more than three years as a result of the virus, and another 17 percent saying employment would suffer for more than a year.

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