Poll: A quarter of Americans now say someone close to them died of COVID-19; political and racial divides continue

One year ago, on the eve of the eventful day that signaled the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — March 11, 2020 — a plurality of Americans (44 percent) said the threat of the virus had been “exaggerated,” according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted at the time. More people said their peers were “overreacting” (36 percent) than said they were “behaving appropriately” (30 percent). Just 6 percent said they had worn a mask. And nearly everyone (88 percent) predicted that fewer than 10,000 Americans would ultimately die from the disease.

Now, 12 tragic months later, with more than half a million U.S. lives lost to COVID-19, Yahoo News and YouGov repolled many of those same respondents and found that few have emerged unscathed from the pandemic — particularly in communities of color.

According to the survey of 1,629 U.S. adults, which was conducted March 4-8, 2021, nearly two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) say they have either contracted COVID-19 themselves or seen a close friend or family member infected. More than a third (37 percent) say they have seen a close friend or family member hospitalized, or been hospitalized themselves. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) say they have suffered the death of a close friend or family member because of the disease.

And in a sobering sign of the virus’s unequal impact, the number of white Americans who say they've been exposed to COVID-19 hospitalization (33 percent) and death (23 percent) is far lower than the number of Black Americans (47 percent/34 percent) or Hispanic Americans (52 percent/45 percent) who say the same.  ...

Among Republicans, 58 percent initially believed that the threat of COVID was exaggerated; one year later, a nearly identical majority (57 percent) feels the same way. Meanwhile, the share of Democrats who consider the threat of COVID exaggerated has consistently fallen — from 29 percent on March 11, 2020, to 12 percent two weeks later, to just 6 percent today.

This fundamental disagreement over the seriousness and severity of the pandemic persists across every aspect of public opinion. Among those who have not yet been vaccinated, Democrats (54 percent) are nearly twice as likely as Republicans (29 percent) to say they will get a shot “as soon as it’s available” to them, while Republicans (47 percent) are nearly three times as likely as Democrats (17 percent) to say they will “never” get vaccinated. ...