President Donald Trump might want to think twice about the medical advice he offers from the White House briefing room.
That’s because a lot of people trust his medical advice on the COVID-19 crisis a lot, according to the most recent The Economist/YouGov survey.
Nearly one in five Americans (17%) say they trust Trump “a lot” on medical advice. For comparison, about twice as many (34%) Americans say they trust medical advice from
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force “a lot.”
But that’s not the case for Republicans. In fact, a plurality of Republicans, 42 percent, say they trust Trump “a lot” for medical advice. That outpaces Republican trust in Fauci (22%) by almost 2-to-1. Another 33 percent of Republicans trust Trump “somewhat,” which means that 75 percent of Republicans trust Trump on medical advice (against 52 percent overall for Dr. Fauci among Republicans).
Trump’s medical advice often conflicts with what the experts recommend. For weeks, Trump himself advocated for the use of a drug called hydroxychloroquine that has since been pulled from a number of trials because it led to a higher risk of heart failure among patients.
On Thursday, April 23,
Trump seemed to suggest that an injection of disinfectant may be worth trying
as a treatment for COVID-19. The off-the-cuff remark from the White House briefing room drew near-universal criticism from the medical community and prompted the maker of Lysol to issue a statement asking customers to not ingest their products.
Related: Many Americans aren’t confident they could manage their expenses during a recession
See the toplines and crosstabs from this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll
Image: Getty
