(Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse)
It's known hyper-partisanship divides the Democratic Party and Republican Party on many key political and scientific issues.
The left-wing or liberal Democrats are pro-poor; pro-science; lead in the fight versus climate change; support minority rights (including LGBTQ); support immigration; champion renewable energy and fight to strengthen the social safety net such as Social Security through liberalism. Democrats are 60% white and 20% black. They despise President Donald Trump.
On the other hand, the right-wing Republicans are pro-rich; anti-science, don't believe in man-made climate change; support white nationalism; are pro-coal and against renewable energy and want to severely slash federal government spending on the social safety nets that keep millions of Americans out of abject poverty. Republicans are 90% white and only 2% black. Republicans love Trump.
Now, a new national poll shows Democrats and Republicans also disagree on the extent of the danger to their lives presented by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the United States.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from March 2 to 3 surprisingly found Democrats are more likely than Republicans to be taking precautionary measures in response to the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. Some 48% of Democratic respondents say they washed their hands more often to prevent transmission of the coronavirus, which is 10% higher than Republicans.
The same poll also shows 21% of Democrats reported taking steps to avoid physical contact with others to avoid COVID-19 contamination. This figure is 7% higher than Republicans. Eight percent of Democrats have recently altered travel plans to avoid being infected by COVID-19, which is nearly three times the share of Republicans that have also done so.
More astounding and despite news COVID-19 is highly-contagious, 54% of Republicans said they haven't changed their daily routine whatsoever. On the other hand, 40% of Democrats say the same thing.
"A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Americans' preparations to deal with the new coronavirus turned in part on their political views," tweeted Brad Heath, a Washington D.C. reporter from Reuters. "Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say they were washing their hands more, limiting contact with others and changing travel plans."
That Republicans refuse to heed warnings by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to protect themselves more from being infected by COVID-19 seems to their belief the plethora of fake news and outright lies about the virus being spread by Trump. Political analysts keep pointing out Trump keeps downplaying the threat of COVID-19 so as not to damage his re-election chances in November. Trump has implied a spike in the number of cases will be bad for his re-election chances.
In a recent interview, Trump lied when he said people sick with COVID-19 could convalesce "by sitting around and even going to work." This outright lie contradicts all the medical advice from U.S. medical experts prescribing self-quarantines for individuals suspected of being ill.
Trump also said he doesn't believe the actual death rate of the virus is as high as 3.4 percent, which was stated by officials at the World Health Organization based on existing data.
"I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number," said Trump to Fox News. "Now, this is just my hunch...but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this, and it's very mild. They will get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor."
