By A 10-to-1 Margin, Americans Support Orders To Stay At Home

By a roughly 10-to-1 margin, Americans say states with stay-at-home orders are making the right call, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey conducted Friday and Saturday.

An 81% majority of the public says it’s currently the right decision for states to tell residents to stay at home unless they have an essential reason for going out. Just 8% say it’s the wrong decision. An even broader 89% say they are personally trying to stay home as much as possible, with only 6% saying they’re not making any such effort.

This willingness to take precautions comes as Americans’ concerns about the potential effects of coronavirus continue to rise. Forty-six percent of Americans now say they’re very concerned they or a family member will contract the virus, doubling the share who said the same in a poll conducted less than a month ago.

A 58% majority say they’re very concerned about the spread of coronavirus across the U.S.

Views of the government response to the coronavirus remain positive. Americans approve, 50% to 41%, of the way the U.S. government is handling issues related to the disease. By 50% to 44%, they approve of President Donald Trump’s response specifically.

About three-quarters of Americans say their daily life has changed at least somewhat compared with the start of the outbreak, with 47% saying their life has changed a lot. Most Americans say the outbreak has yet to significantly affect the quality of their finances, their eating and exercise habits, and their emotional health. But 31% say their finances are in worse shape than they were before the outbreak started, with 30% saying the same thing about their exercise habits, 22% about their eating habits and 35% about their emotional health.

The survey also asked respondents across the country to describe in their own words how the coronavirus outbreak and the nation’s response have affected them. Here are some of their responses, lightly edited for grammar, length and clarity.

• “Family member is a nurse and I’m concerned about the lack of basic safety equipment.”

• “I’m a registered nurse. Like lambs to the slaughter. We need appropriate N-95 masks.”

• “My husband is a hospital chaplain and considered essential staff. He is currently quarantined away from us after being tested for COVID-19 today.”

• “Have personally had contact with a few people who were hospitalized for the virus. I have been denied testing because I have not been out of the country; yet I have been in contact with someone who attended Mardi Gras!”

• “My 71-year-old brother passed away from the virus four days ago in New York.”

• “Unable to visit my husband in the nursing facility he resides in.”

• “Confined to home, unable to see my son, afraid to go to the store.”

• “I’m cut off from all family.”

• “I have not left my property for more than a month.”

• “Unable to work or live a normal life.”

• “I don’t have any money. I don’t qualify for the stimulus check.”

• “I’m scared at home, doing the best I can.”

• “I’m terrified.”

• “My whole way of life as I knew it has changed!!!”

• “My church is closed and I can’t go shopping.”

• “Shopping is a pain in the ass and my gym is closed.”

• “Trips canceled, spring break ruined, going batty inside all day.”

• “I am a kitchen manager in a diner. Of course this damn HOAX is killing a lot more of us and a hell of a lot faster than any freaking fake virus.”

• “Loss of civil rights.”

• “Loss of childcare.”

• “Loss of sales.”

• “Loss of freelance income.”

• “Lost my job (after 10 years).”

• “Loss of life of friend.”

Use the widget below to further explore the results of the HuffPost/YouGov survey, using the menu at the top to select survey questions and the buttons at the bottom to filter the data by subgroups:

The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted April 3-4 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.

HuffPost has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.

Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some but not all potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error.