A new scientific poll shows that Americans are giving the World Health Organization (WHO) high marks right now. The poll, conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Better World Campaign from March 06 – 09, queried 2,200 American adults about their views of the WHO, and more broadly the role of international cooperation in fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
The survey found that some 77% trust the WHO, ranking it above all other entities tested. This includes institutions that have long enjoyed high trust from Americans, including — remarkably — the military. But when it comes to confronting the coronavirus, Americans are looking to the World Health Organization and the United Nations right now.
Why is the World Health Organization getting so much trust at this time?
The fact that Americans are looking to the World Health Organization right now flows directly from their acknowledgement that the pandemic is a problem for which the solution is uniquely suited to global cooperation. This intuition is shared across party lines — four out of five Americans (82%) from across the political spectrum says it’s important that the U.S. work to limit the spread of coronavirus in other countries, according to the poll.
The bottom line is that in this time of high stress over COVID-19, Americans’ instincts are not at all towards isolationism. Rather, we can intuit from this poll that Americans vastly prefer policies that support international efforts to contain the spread of the virus, and presumably policies that exhibit global solidarity for the coronavirus response.