Poll: Majority fear coronavirus restrictions will be lifted too soon

Almost 60 percent of American voters are worried that lifting restrictions on public behavior too soon will lead to a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths.

According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday, 58 percent of registered voters expressed concern about a loosening of restrictions, compared with 32 percent who worried that the restrictions would stay in place for too long. Three percent said they were concerned about both scenarios.

There were partisan divides on the topic, some of which have been reflected in recent protests around the nation in places like Ohio and Michigan. While a clear majority of Democrats (77 percent) and independents (57 percent) are more worried about the coronavirus, Republicans are very much divided on the issue — with 48 percent expressing more concern about the economy and 39 percent more worried about the pandemic. Different states, of course, have different restrictions, some much stricter than others.

The poll also indicated increased concern that the coronavirus would have a direct personal impact: Thirty-three percent said they were “very worried” the coronavirus would strike a family member, while an additional 40 percent said they were “somewhat worried.” Those numbers are up from 15 percent and 38 percent, respectively, in a poll released March 20.

A mere 3 percent said the pandemic had no impact on their lives, compared with 77 percent who said it had affected them either in “a very major way” or “a fairly major way.”

President Donald Trump’s approval rating was 46 percent, with 51 percent saying they disapprove of the job he’s doing. Those numbers are unchanged from last month’s poll and consistent with his numbers in NBC/WSJ polls this year.

The president’s numbers lagged in another key area: Those polled said they favor presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden over Trump by a margin of 49 percent to 42 percent. And 45 percent of those polled said they thought Trump has not handled the pandemic crisis well — and is still not doing so.

Those polled also expressed limited trust in what the president has had to say about the ongoing health crisis, particularly in relation to other authorities.

More than two-thirds of those polled (69 percent) said they trusted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide accurate information about the coronavirus, followed by their state’s governor (66 percent), Dr. Anthony Fauci (60 percent), New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (46 percent), Trump (36 percent), Vice President Mike Pence (35 percent) and Biden (26 percent).

A total of 52 percent said they distrusted what Trump has to say on the subject, followed by Pence (37 percent) and Biden (29 percent). A mere 8 percent said they did not trust Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The poll was conducted April 13-15 of 900 registered voters, and it has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.