Trust in federal government on the pandemic soars after Biden inauguration, poll finds
More Americans say they trust the federal government when it comes to the pandemic since President Joe Biden took office last week, a poll found.
The Axios/Ipsos poll of 1,112 adults conducted Jan. 22-25 found trust in the federal government to provide accurate information on COVID-19, willingness to get the coronavirus vaccine immediately and improvement in mental health have all increased since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Trust in COVID-19 information
Fifty percent of respondents said they had “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the federal government to provide accurate COVID-19 information — up from 40% in a poll conducted shortly before Biden’s inauguration.
That’s the highest percentage of respondents who reported trusting the government since early April.
Trust in Biden is significantly higher than trust in former President Donald Trump, 58% to 27%, the poll found. While the number of Americans who say they trust Biden to give accurate information has been generally increasing since August, the number who say they trust Trump has been declining.
Biden has taken numerous executive actions since his swearing in, many of them aimed at curtailing the pandemic.
On Wednesday, he signed an order requiring masks in federal buildings, on federal lands and for federal employees, took steps to end the country’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization and created the COVID Response Coordinator position.
The next day he signed several additional orders related to ramping up vaccinations, testing and treatments, reopening schools and delivering emergency aid to states.
Getting the vaccine
Forty-nine percent of respondents said they plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it’s available to them, the poll found. That’s up from 43% earlier in January and 33% in mid-December.
But 76% reported they were at least somewhat concerned about the government’s handling of the vaccine rollout.
Another 62% said they were “very” or “somewhat” confident in the Biden administration’s ability to make the vaccine widely available, and 57% expressed confidence in the administration’s ability to distribute doses quickly.
Vaccine rollout got off to a slower-than-expected start under the Trump administration, falling short of the goal to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million by the end of January 2021.
Biden on Thursday invoked the Defense Production Act, which allows presidents to expedite supplies and services for national defense and to ramp up production of supplies needed for COVID-19 response, including vaccine materials.
His administration’s goal is to vaccine 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will launch the federal pharmacy program, which will make vaccines available at local pharmacies starting in February. On Wednesday, Biden directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin putting together the “first federally-supported community vaccination centers.”
Mental health
More Americans also reported an improvement in their mental health since Biden took office, the poll found.
Fourteen percent said their mental health got either “a little” or “a lot” better, while 67% said it stayed the same and 19% said it got either “a little” or “a lot” worse.
The 14% is the highest improvement recorded since the start of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index in March.
“This increase is driven primarily by Democrats with 21% who say their mental health has improved, more than double the number that said the same last week (10%),” the poll said.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Trust in federal government on the pandemic soars after Biden inauguration, poll finds."
