About one in five in US have lost someone close in pandemic, poll finds

As country opens up and with vaccinations well under way, many Americans look back at who they have lost over past year

A masked bartender works at a restaurant in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Bloomberg

About one in five Americans say they lost a relative or close friend to the coronavirus, as the country yearns for a return to normality a year into the pandemic.

The public’s worry about the virus has dropped to its lowest point since autumn, before the holidays brought soaring case numbers into the new year.

But people still in mourning express frustration at the continued struggle to stay safe.

“We didn’t have a chance to grieve,” said Nettie Parks of Volusia County, Florida, whose only brother died of Covid-19 last April.

"It’s almost like it happened yesterday for us. It’s still fresh."

Ms Parks, 60, and her five sisters have yet to hold a memorial because of travel restrictions.

She said she retired from her customer service job last year in part because of worry about workplace exposure, and now she is watching with dread as more states and cities relax health rules.

Only about three in 10 Americans are very worried about themselves or a family member being infected with the virus, down from about four in 10 in recent months, a new poll from the AP-Norc Centre for Public Affairs Research shows.

But most are at least somewhat worried.

“They’re letting their guard down and they shouldn’t,” Ms Parks said. “People are going to have to realise this thing is not going anywhere. It’s not over.”

The toll of Covid-19 is staggering, with more than 527,000 dead in the US alone, and counting.

"We didn't have a chance to grieve. It's almost like it happened yesterday for us. It's still fresh."

“It’s hard to conceptualise the true danger if you don’t know it personally,” said Dr K Luan Phan, psychiatry chief at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Centre.

“That fear is most salient in [those who lost a loved one]. They’re going to be a lot more cautious as businesses reopen and as schools start back."

And without that first-hand experience, even people who heeded health officials’ pleas to stay masked and keep their distance are falling to pandemic fatigue because “fears tend to habituate", he said.

Communities of colour were hardest hit by the coronavirus.

The poll found about 30 per cent of African Americans, like Ms Parks, and Hispanics have a relative or close friend who died from the virus, compared with 15 per cent of white people.

That translates into differences in how worried people are about a virus that remains a serious threat until most of the country and the world is vaccinated.

Despite recent drops in cases, 43 per cent of black Americans and 39 per cent of Hispanics are very or extremely worried about themselves or a loved one developing Covid-19, compared to only 25 per cent of white people.

While vaccines offer hope for ending the scourge, the poll found about one in three Americans do not intend to have their shot.

The most reluctant are younger adults, people without college degrees and Republicans.

Those hardest hit are also having the most trouble getting vaccinated.

Sixteen per cent of black Americans and 15 per cent of Hispanics say they already have received at least one shot, compared to 26 per cent of white people. But most of each group want to be vaccinated.

Demand for vaccines outstrips supply, and about four in 10 people, especially older adults, say the sign-up process has been poor.

John Perez, a retired teacher and school administrator in Los Angeles, spent hours trying to apply online before giving up.

Then a friend found a drive-through vaccination site with openings.

“When I was driving there for the first shot, I was going through a tunnel of emotions,” said Mr Perez, 68. “I knew what a special moment it was.”

Overall, confidence in the vaccines is slowly strengthening.

The poll found 25 per cent of people in the US are not confident the vaccines were properly tested, down from 32 per cent who expected they would not be in December.

“We were a little sceptical when it was first coming out because it was so politicised,” said Bob Richard, 50, of Smithfield, Rhode Island.

But now, Mr Richard said his family was inclined to get the shots, if they could sort through the appointment system when it was their turn.

The poll found two thirds of Americans say their fellow citizens nationally have not taken the pandemic seriously enough.

“The conflict with people who don’t take it serious as I do, it’s disappointing,” said Wayne Denley, 73, of Alexandria in Louisiana.

Early on, Mr Denley and his wife started keeping a list of people they knew who had become sick. By November, they had counted nine deaths and dozens of infections.

He shared the list with people doubtful of the pandemic’s toll, yet he would still see acquaintances not wearing masks.

“I’m glad I wrote them down. It helped make it real for me,” Mr Denley said. “You sort of become numb to it.”

There are exceptionally wide partisan differences.

Sixty per cent of Democrats say their local communities fail to take the threat seriously enough, and 83 per cent say the country did not either.

Among Republicans, 31 per cent say their localities did not take the pandemic seriously enough, and 44 per cent said that of the whole country.

But another third of Republicans say the US overreacted.

The differences translate into behaviour. More than three quarters of Democrats say they always wear a mask around others compared to about half of Republicans.

And the divisions have Dr Phan worried.

“We’ve survived something that we should be grateful for having survived," he said.

"How do we repay or reciprocate that good fortune? The only way to do it is to be stronger in the year after the epidemic than before."