Republicans 3 Times as Likely as Dems to ‘Immediately’ Rush Back Out After Coronavirus, But Most Will Still ‘Wait and See’

Logan Cyrus, AFP/Getty

A new Gallup Panel Survey finds that most Americans are cautious about the idea of resuming normal, day-to-day business in the country after stay-at-home orders and social distancing mandates are lifted. That result is approximate with the result for the same question a month ago, indicating that the sense the worst is over has not increased over the last few weeks.

However, the poll also found the opinions divide over political lines, with three times as many Republicans expressing they would be “immediately” ready to return to prior activities as Democrats.

The specific question was clear about the resumption of normal, day-to-day activities as a personal act following the relaxation of government mandates, as opposed to the respondents desires for those mandates to be lifted.

“Once government restrictions on social contact are lifted and businesses and schools start to reopen, how quickly do you think you would return to your normal activities, including interacting with people in public?”

Only 20% of respondents said they would be ready “immediately,” while 71% selected that they’d rather “wait to see what happens with the coronavirus before resuming.” About 10% would “continue to limit [their] contact with other people and daily activities indefinitely.”

So 61% of Republicans selected “Wait to see what happens with the coronavirus before resuming,” vs 79% of Democrats.

But 31% of Republicans selected “Immediately” for returning to normal activities, while only 11% of Democrats did so.

The poll also found that small town respondents were more likely to want to to return immediately than city residents and those in the suburbs (23% to 15% to 18%) and that men were slightly more likely to choose “immediately” than women (22% to 17%.)

The partisan divide on the issue is the widest gap, which is consistent with other data showing that political identity has a big influence on how one views the pandemic and resulting government response.

Read the full report from Gallup here.

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