Nearly 60% of Republicans believe the COVID-19 death toll in the US of 177,000 is ‘acceptable’

A majority of Republicans believe the coronavirus death toll surpassing 177,000 in the US is ‘acceptable’ and the nation’s handling of the pandemic is ‘going well’, according to a new poll.

A new poll by CBS News-YouGov conducted between August 19 through 21 revealed that 57 percent of Republican respondents believe the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is ‘acceptable’, and 43 percent deemed it ‘unacceptable’.

Republicans were the only partisan group in which a majority of voters believed the number of virus deaths was acceptable.

In contrast, 90 percent of Democrats said the number of coronavirus fatalities was unacceptable and 10 percent said it was acceptable.

Among Independents, 67 percent labeled the death toll as unacceptable and 33 percent found it acceptable. 

In the poll, 73 percent of Republicans said the nation’s handling of the pandemic is ‘going well’.

In that specific poll a total of just 38 percent of voters across all political parties believe the pandemic was ‘going well’.

Over all 62 percent of voters said the White House’s handling of the crisis is ‘going badly’, but only 27 percent of Republicans agreed.

In answering a question on whether the number of US deaths is actually higher or lower than reported, 44 percent of all polled said the number of fatalities is higher than the government says.

However, only 18 percent of Republicans believe the number of fatalities is higher than reported and 64 percent of GOP voters believe the number of dead is actually fewer than reported.

The poll surveyed 2,226 US registered voters between August 19 to 21 and the margin of error was 2.4 percentage points.

As of Monday evening the US has reported more than 5.7million COVID-19 infections – a quarter of the world’s reported cases – and the death toll reached more than 177,000 fatalities – almost 22 percent of the world’s reported deaths.

President Donald Trump has been heavily criticized by the public and members of Congress for his handling of the pandemic and has clashed heads with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases. 

The president has come under fire touting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus and has gone on Twitter sprees sharing posts in favor of the anti-malarial drug, despite disagreement from medical experts across the globe. 

However, it seems that his Republican backing supports his work in office in handling the coronavirus crisis.