By Dan Balz | The Washington Post
President Trump is doing everything he can to persuade Americans to worry less about the coronavirus pandemic. He wants to reopen the economy quickly. He wants schools to be fully open in the fall. He wants a Republican convention next month to be as normal as possible. So far, the public isn’t buying.
The president has the bully pulpit but the public is looking at what’s happening around them.
About half of states are recording increases in the number of cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. In some places, the increases have been dramatic. State and local leaders have been forced to reverse course on previous efforts to reopen businesses.
Recent Gallup polling, reported by the organization’s Jeffrey M. Jones, tells the story. More people now say the situation with the virus is getting worse than at any time during the pandemic and expectations about how long the disruption might last are shifting as well. The changes are not at the margins.
