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The vast majority of Vermonters believe the state government reacted appropriately to the pandemic, according to a recent poll. And data shows they’re following Covid-19 public health guidelines, too.
As part of a national survey about state responses to the novel coronavirus, researchers asked 155 Vermonters about their experience and opinions about Covid-19. They found that 88% of those polled said the government reacted “about right.” Vermont has the highest in the nation public approval rating of a state response.
The Vermonters polled also largely support a slow reopening of the state. Only 9.7% of respondents said they thought the state should reopen in the next two weeks — the lowest in the nation.
Matthew Baum, a Harvard professor who worked on the survey, said he partnered with others to poll 22,000 people across the country to shed light on state-level differences in the Covid-19 pandemic.
“States have been a black box of what’s going on and what people think and are doing,” Baum said. “When you look at the variation in responses, it’s pretty wide. So we wanted to see how people are reacting to quite different guidelines.”
He said the national results were surprising. Given the staggering economic consequences of Covid policies, he was not expecting to see support “down the line in pretty much every state.”
“It’s very easy to get caught up in the intense coverage of dissent,” he said. “But there’s broad support for closing businesses and wearing face masks, for example.”
Nationally, the survey found that more than 80% of the public supported closing non-essential businesses, and more than 90% of respondents supported closing schools, canceling large sports and entertainment events, and limiting restaurant service.
Not everyone is happy about complying with the Covid rules, even here in Vermont. In the past few weeks, small groups of protesters have gathered in Montpelier twice to demonstrate against the “stay home” order.
But Vermonters are broadly following social distancing guidelines. Googletracked people’s location via cell phone and found that people were spending more time at home and less time at their workplace.
Most respondents to the Harvard survey also reported following government guidelines.
Three-quarters of them told researchers they avoided contact with other people, and 61% wore a face mask when outside the home, although Scott has not mandated masks in public places.
Scott himself got positive ratings from the people polled — 75% of respondents said they approved or strongly approved of his handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Your governor is flying high right now,” Baum said. He noted that Republican governors in Democratic states, and Kentucky’s Democratic governor in a Republican state, had among the highest ratings in the crisis.
“It makes sense, because when you’re going against type, it gives people more trust in you,” he said.
Vermonters also were pleased with how people at their place of employment were reacting; 72% of respondents said their coworkers were acting about right, the highest in the nation.
The support for the response to the outbreak comes despite the poll also showing that Vermonters, like other people nationally, have been hard-hit by the pandemic. About a quarter of respondents reported losing their job and another 19% reported losing pay. One-third of Vermonters reported feeling concerned about financial hardship from the epidemic.
Overall, 61% of respondents said the pandemic has affected them “a lot” or “a great deal,” according to the poll results.
The poll did not break down Vermont results by demographic details. At a national level, Baum noted that black, Asian and Hispanic respondents were more in favor of delaying reopening and taking measures like closing businesses than white respondents.
People of color were also more likely to report concern about financial hardships and concern about getting Covid-19. The pandemic has had a disproportionate death toll for people of color, particularly black people.
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