Janelle Irwin Taylor
Floridians remain concerned about their personal health and strongly support statewide mitigation policies, including mandatory facial covering requirements and limited gatherings, amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
The University of South Florida and Nielsen partnered on a statewide survey finding more than 52% of respondents remain worried they will contract the novel coronavirus while even more, nearly 77%, fear someone they know will contract it.
More than 79% of respondents support a statewide order on face coverings in public. Floridians almost unanimously support continuing to limit public gatherings, more than 94%, and closing restaurants and bars, 89%.
Support is also strong for limiting gatherings at places of worship (more than 87%) and the continued issuance of stay-at-home orders (86%.)
Nearly 82% of respondents said beaches and other public recreation areas should remain closed.
That support flies in the face of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Phase One reopening guidelines that allow restaurants to open at 25% dining room capacity and his continued resistance to closing beaches or houses of worship.
However, support for enforcement of such policies is less pervasive than issuing the orders themselves. Only 62% of respondents indicated they thought people who violated stay-at-home orders should be fined.
Gaps also between support for local, state and federal government responses. Federal government support is fairly strong at 49%, but is 2.5% lower than support for the state’s response and 20% lower than local government.
Nearly 55% of respondents said they trusted information from the federal government, but that trust was 8% lower than trust at the state level and 22% lower than trust in local government.
Coronavirus seems to be making the case for governing closest to the people with nearly seven in 10 Floridians approving of their local government’s response to the virus. Nearly 77% said they trust their local government either “a great deal” or a “good amount.”
The survey also showed partisan divide. Not surprisingly, Democrats are significantly more likely to disapprove of the federal response, led by Republican President Donald Trump, compared to Republicans (10%) and independents (35%.)
A similar, but less deep divide exists among sentiments at the state level with 44% of Democrats disapproving of the state response compared to just 11% of Republicans and 32% of independents.
The survey also showed Floridians value the President and Governor’s press conferences with more than 66% saying Trump’s daily press conferences provided “a lot” or “some information about the pandemic; 61% reported the same about DeSantis’ press conferences.
The survey included 600 responses from Floridians April 15-24 and has a margin of error of 4%.
USF and Nielsen plan to release another set of survey data next week centering on economic, consumer and work impacts related to COVID-19.
8 comments
Anes11
May 13, 2020 at 10:31 am
Ridiculous. Sick of media peddling fear. Fake polls. Globalists/Fauci/Gates knew Chinese were altering animal viruses to infect humans, intending to kill as many as possible and cause global economic collapse. There is no vaccine just being developed. They’ve had something in the works before the virus was released. Viruses mutate. Why are there no SARS, MERS or cold vaccines? Because it kills you. This whole virus release was to take down the free people with forced vaccines, contact tracking, digital money, and to usher in green new deal and socialism. No free speech, no second amendment, no property rights. They have such a hatred of God and the family unit of mother/father/children. What will happen when you refuse this vaccine?? You will be denied a job. You won’t be able to travel or shop at a store. These fools need to read the book of Revelation, cause guess what? God wins.
Karole Miele
May 13, 2020 at 11:08 am
I especially love the part about FINING a person who violates the order! Surely you jest! Why don’t you concentrate on getting our unemployment and other financial benefits out to us? I haven’t been able to work since January and I’m still trying to get help and you’re talking about issuing fines!? Florida, you really need to get it together!
Nick Anders
May 13, 2020 at 1:43 pm
The image at the top of this article is ridiculous and hilarious, good job guys.
Dana
May 14, 2020 at 3:35 pm
The image at the top of the article is completely appropriate. This virus is scary and real. I have had an uncle who has been hospitalized and an aunt who has died. I also know plenty of people who have been sick with it, as well. So far in Florida, 43,502 people are infected & 876 are dead and those are only the one’s that DeSantis allows us to know ABOUT.
The country has 1,441,055 infected & 86,098 dead. There is nothing easier to understand than being intelligent and wanting to be safe, not spread it or get it. For godssakes ENOUGH PEOPLE have died.
Making sure that our state doesn’t open up too early is a huge concern. Although our economy is the #1 concern, the worst thing, would be is to open up too early & we’d begin to see a spike in the spread again & more deaths. That would set us back and we’d be back to square one.
Testing & tracing is key. We need it EVERYWHERE. Not just where DeSantis says he made it available. I need to see it in my neighborhood. It has to be everywhere.
Until there is a vaccine, we will not be out of this nightmare.
SANDRA OLIVA
May 15, 2020 at 4:36 pm
BRAVO TO THE COMMENTOR ABOVE. IT’S REASONABLE AND SMART! AT 85 YEARS OLD, MOST OF US OLDIES ARE NOT RUSHING OUTSIDE TO GO ALONG WITH THIS STUPID AND VERY DANGEROUS OPENING!
NOR SHOULD MOST PEOPLE.
IT’S SO SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT WITH EVERY PERSON GOING ON AS IF THE VIRUS WAS NOT STILL HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS, IT RISKS THAT PERSON OF GETTING THE VIRUS OF COURSE, BUT IT ALSO PROLONGS THE LENGTH OF TIME THAT WE MUST STAY ON ALERT BECAUSE WITH EACH PERSON “OUT THERE” (MANY HAVE THE VIRUS BUT ARE NOT SHOWING SYMPTOMS AND ARE NOT TESTED), HE OR SHE IS LIKELY TO INFECT 3 OR 4 OTHERS, WHO EACH GO ON TO INFECT 3 OR 4 OTHERS..THE INFECTION RATE IS EXPONENTIAL. WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND BY THOSE WHO ARE RIOTING ABOUT THEIR RIGHT TO BE, WHEN WE KNOW FULL WELL THAT ACTING IN A WAY TO KILL SOMEONE ELSE (YELLING ‘FIRE’ IN A CROWDED THEATRE IS THE USUAL EXAMPLE OF A WAY TO RIGHTFULLY ABROGATE THE 1ST AMENDMENT RELATED TO FREE SPEECH. ..NO NO, IF IT CAUSES DANGER TO OTHERS (AS TRUMP IS A DANGER TO AMERICAN LIFE, just Had to say that).
Anes11
May 17, 2020 at 7:54 am
Hey Lady. You cannot infringe on other people’s rights because you are afraid of a virus. What needs to happen is personal responsibility for yourself. YOU stay home, YOU wear a mask, YOU avoid crowds. It’s your problem. We cannot have economic Armageddon to appease every 85 year old . You are already living on borrowed time.
Dana
May 17, 2020 at 4:45 pm
Anes11, it’s your prerogative not to wear a mask but NEVER EVER tell someone they are LIVING on BORROWED time. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!!! People want to protect themselves from this virus. We have 1,515,311 people in the US infected and so far 90,332 have died. I can’t help it if Florida has decided to stop reporting the numbers & has stop testing. If DeSantis doesn’t care about the death toll and people being infected – that’s his decision, but people won’t forget it. Remember – if you decide not to wear a mask – you are being selfish because we are all in this together. I protect you, you protect me. The longer we screw around and pretend this isn’t going on, the longer our economy will suffer and the longer we will endure this madness.
https://twitter.com/IAmJohnAles/status/1259317497867587591
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