Three years following the commencement of the coronavirus pandemic, with increased authoritarianism worldwide to show for it, almost half of U.S. adults (47 percent) claim they do not think their lives will “return to pre-pandemic normalcy,” according to a Gallup News poll.
Three years into the pandemic, just one-third of Americans say their lives are completely back to normal, while 47% say their lives will never return to pre-pandemic normalcy. https://t.co/aOGsKDgzdA
— GallupNews (@GallupNews) March 15, 2023
The group who reports life as completely back to normal has increased from 24% in July and August 2022 to 33% in February 2023. However, the share of people who claim it is “not back to normal but will eventually be” has dropped from 23% to 20% during that same period of time.
Included in the poll’s findings was that perceptions surrounding the pandemic “diverge sharply and most significantly by partisanship.”
“Just as Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to perceive the pandemic is over, they are also more likely to say their own lives are completely back to normal,” reported Gallup.
About half of Republicans say their lives are normal once again, with 18% stating they have not yet reverted but eventually will. 33% of GOP voters indicated their lives will never again be normal, and 53% of Democrats report the same.
Many leftists notably expressed fierce opposition to a return to normal life years into the COVID-19 outbreak. One such example was seen with Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC, who in February 2022 shared on Twitter a self-described “angry monologue” clipped from the “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”
If you're tired of people saying they're 'done with Covid', that they want to 'move on' from the pandemic, get 'back to normal'… even as 3,000 people die on a daily basis & while ignoring Long Covid, this angry monologue from me tonight… is for you:pic.twitter.com/045qQMuXNO
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 10, 2022
Gallup noted that the results are virtually the same when compared to a previous survey conducted in October. Responses came from a set of self-administered web surveys taken by 5,167 adults from Feb. 21-28., with a reported margin of effort of ±2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
The global analytics and advice firm also found that opinions pertaining to a return to normalcy “differ significantly” between different genders and levels of household income.
“Majorities of two typically Democratic-leaning groups — women and lower-income adults — say their lives will never be back to normal, while their counterparts are less likely to say as much,” stated the survey report.
People making under $36,000 were reportedly more likely to say their lives have not returned to normal, (55%), with the figures for the $36,000-$90,000 and $90,000 or more rangers coming in at 48% and 43%, respectively.
