Americans Fear the Worst to Come 'Weeks From Now' For COVID-19 Cases

Jeri Condit of Microsoft News wrote:In a press conference on Sunday, March 29, President Trump indicated a belief that the death rate for COVID-19 in the U.S. may peak in about two weeks, based on modeling provided to his administration.

Polling conducted by Microsoft News indicates that Americans are becoming more concerned about the coronavirus and also believe that the peak in new COVID-19 cases is coming "weeks from now."

When asked when cases of new infections will peak in the U.S., “Weeks from now” was the most popular answer choice with 56% of responses. Since 3/15/20, this sentiment has seen an increase of 8 points.

Comparing responses to age and income demographics, respondents answering “Weeks from now” were more likely to be 35-54 years old and earn between $50k and $100k per year.

Twenty-three percent reported ‘Months from now’ as the timeframe they believe we'll see a peak in new cases. This sentiment dropped by 5 points since 3/15/20.

As more Americans watch the rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths, we see poll responses increasing for those who are "very or somewhat concerned" about COVID-19, reaching a peak of 86% since January. A 9-point increase has been noted in those who are "very concerned" since 3/19/20.

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Methodology: The Microsoft News Poll uses online opt-in polls, collected from a random sample of American adults, to produce statistically valid results. In this survey, we collected responses from 170,353‬ people from March 10 to March 30 using tools from polling firm CivicScience. We then analyzed the results to model how demographic groups answered each question, based on age, gender, race, education, location, and party identification. Answers were projected onto the estimated distribution of those demographic groups. The method is as accurate as traditional polling methods, and in this survey produced a margin of error of +- 2 percentage points.