Just 37% of Americans trust what Donald Trump is telling them about coronavirus, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. That is a very low number for a president running for reelection to be getting on the major issue of the day, but it’s high when you look at his record on the issue.
Republicans are still with Trump, with 74% of them trusting his COVID-19 information either a great deal or a good amount. But just 34% of independents agree.
Public health experts get the highest amount of trust, at 84%. State and local governments, which have been taking a leading role in coronavirus response as the Trump administration variously misleads and refuses to lead, are next, with 72% giving them a great deal or a good amount of trust. And 50% of people trust information from the news media, despite just 36% of Republicans agreeing. Of course, if you watch Fox News, you shouldn’t trust what the media is telling you.
The big problem here is that people who choose to trust Donald Trump and Fox News aren’t risking only their own health. They’re not damaging their health, and their health alone, by doing something like drinking themselves to death at home. They’re doing the equivalent of careening drunkenly around the roads in giant SUVs, plowing down pedestrians and causing 10-car pile-ups. The nature of a pandemic is that it’s not only our own actions that matter. People who believe Republican politicians who say there’s no danger, it’s all going to go away soon, it’s okay to keep shaking hands and attending parties put the rest of us at risk, too.
Trump has finally started to change his tone, but it is too little and way too late.