A new benchmark in our perception of COVID’s waning threat

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: As we acknowledge the start of the fifth year of our humble tracker and therefore the fifth year of COVID times, we revisit the very first question from the very first wave. We also asked about how certain or uncertain people were feeling.

What we found: This question kicked off the Tracker and is one of the most-asked over its four-plus years. It has bounced around as waves of the pandemic ebbed and flowed. But it hit a new benchmark this wave, with one in three Americans saying the pandemic currently poses a very low threat. Overall, that gets us up to six in ten (59%) saying it’s a low threat, compared to just 12% now saying it’s a high or very high threat. But what does the CDC say? Well, caveats about how fewer people are getting tested these days, hospital admissions are about as low as they have ever been and deaths are trending downward. All of which is great news, of course. But note I say trending down (not gone), lest we forget that there are still more than 5,000 hospitalized at any given point.

In terms of certainty, now half of us say we have no uncertainty. Of course, that means that half still have some certainty in their decisions. But the number of those saying they have a lot of uncertainty or “are stuck” has dropped greatly since the pandemic’s early days.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Eight in 10 Americans value their credit card rewards

More say they can save money as mixed bag of economic opinions continues

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about?