Chilling new polls show that significant numbers of Americans have ended friendships over disagreements about COVID-19 — and an even great...
Chilling new polls show that significant numbers of Americans have ended friendships over disagreements about COVID-19 — and an even greater number have lost a friend or family member who died from the disease.
In one survey released Thursday, YouGov asked respondents “Have you lost any friendships because of differences in opinion related to the COVID-19 pandemic?”
Overall, 20 percent responded “yes,” 68 percent responded “no,” and another 11 percent replied “Don’t know.”
Democrats were significantly more likely than Republicans to have lost a friend due to disagreements about Covid, with 24 percent responding “yes” versus 15 percent of GOP voters who said the same. Independents were closer to the overall number at 18 percent.
Covid misinformation has become endemic, and has bred vaccine hesitancy that disproportionately affects Republicans. Another new YouGov poll illustrates the that reality.
Respondents to the Economist/YouGov poll were asked “Do you personally know anyone who has died due to complications from covid-19?”
Eleven percent responded “Yes, a family member,” and another 18 percent said “Yes, a close friend.”
Among Democrats, a combined 40 percent said they’ve lost a close friend or family member to the disease, while a combined 26 percent of Republicans said the same.
The acrimony around Covid figures to get worse before it gets better, as public health officials have increasingly laid the spread and worsening of the pandemic at the feet of those who refuse to be vaccinated, and warn that unvaccinated people could allow the disease to mutate into something even more harmful than the Delta variant.
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