David Lazer, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer and Information Sciences and Co-Director of NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks, recently co-authored a national COVID-19 survey with researchers from Harvard University and Rutgers University-New Brunswick. The survey was conducted by the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States, a joint project of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, and Rutgers’ School of Communication & Information.
One of the survey’s major findings was that 93 percent of those surveyed (almost 23,000 people in all fifty states and Washington, D.C., from April 17 to 26) are against re-opening their states immediately. And state governors have higher ratings of trust than President Donald Trump for their respective responses to the pandemic. Said Professor Lazer: “Trump especially is such a polarizing figure…But it is notable that his approval on the coronavirus is below that of every governor in every state.” The Consortium will be releasing additional state data in coming months.
A summary of the survey from Rutgers University can be found here.