NOEL KING, HOST:
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force said something on CNN on Sunday that seems to have upset President Trump. Here's what she said.
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DEBORAH BIRX: I want to be very clear. What we're seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas.
KING: The president tweeted afterward, quote, "pathetic." OK, so that's how he feels. How do Americans broadly feel about our response to the pandemic? NPR's Brian Mann has the findings of a new NPR and Ipsos poll. Hey, Brian.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
KING: So, I mean, the storyline here has been - there is so much division in Washington over this pandemic, but the poll found a lot of common ground among Americans. What are we saying?
MANN: Well, really, across the political spectrum, people are saying things are bad - I mean, more than 155,000 Americans dead so far. And people think it's time to set the political feuding aside and go big on a national response. Mallory Newall is a pollster with Ipsos. This is the firm that worked with NPR on this.
MALLORY NEWALL: We've come to a pretty dire place when it comes to both the death toll and the spread of coronavirus across the country. And Americans, as they grapple with the reality and just how grave the situation is, I think they're looking for sweeping, really broad, powerful action here.
MANN: And, of course, this has political ramifications. When we asked about November's presidential election, upwards of 80% of Americans say they'll support the candidate with a national coronavirus plan, a strategy for rebuilding the economy. And, interestingly, 81% of people say they want someone who can unify the country.
KING: OK, so that's what Americans are looking forward to in November. In the lead up to that, what do people think the government can do now that might help?
MANN: Yeah, Americans across - again, across the political spectrum, now support measures like mask mandates, public health rules requiring face coverings in public. They want the federal government to finally improve coronavirus testing. One of the people we surveyed is Sophie McClellan. She's a Democrat who lives near Jacksonville, Fla.
SOPHIE MCCLELLAN: I don't think that we have adequate testing because it can take up to two weeks to get results. And, also, I think enough people are not following physician recommendations in terms of social distancing and wearing masks.
MANN: And, really, we found overwhelming majorities of Americans now support mask-wearing. It's just not controversial anymore. Seventy-five percent say they will back those state mandates.
KING: And yet President Trump has made really clear that he doesn't support mask requirements at all. He tweeted yesterday that the U.S. has done much better than most other countries dealing with COVID-19. Do Americans agree with him?
MANN: In a word, no. I mean, two-thirds of people we surveyed say America is doing worse than other countries. Forty-one percent said, we're doing much worse. I put this question to Laura Braslow. She's a Republican who lives in Quakertown, Pa.
LAURA BRASLOW: Absolutely worse. We have a leader - and I use the term loosely, in quotes - who is not providing leadership to this country at all. I mean, if I have to suck it up and wear a mask, he should be sucking it up and wearing a mask.
MANN: Now, Laura says she didn't vote for Trump in 2016, won't vote for him in November. But what's interesting is even Republicans we surveyed who do back President Trump want him to do a lot more to fight COVID-19. Here's Kevin Reno, who lives in Irving, Texas.
KEVIN RENO: I think a national approach would be better. I think it would be effective. And it may be at the point here, before too long, that we have to do that.
MANN: And, again, so far, the president has resisted this idea of a kind of national response. But we found two-thirds of Americans want a single countrywide strategy for coronavirus testing, for deciding when businesses and schools should reopen.
KING: You know, let me ask you what you found on schools because that is one of the biggest questions going right now. President Trump says he wants kids back in classrooms in the fall. Do the people you surveyed think that that is going to happen or that that can happen safely?
MANN: People are really nervous about this. Overall, 66% of Americans say they favor distance learning in the fall, keeping their kids home. Democrats overwhelmingly favor that; Republicans more mixed - 60% agree with Trump and think kids should go back to classrooms.
KING: And just real quick - the economy. What are we saying?
MANN: Yeah, people say they want Washington to get off the fence. They want them to spend big to help the economy and help people who are struggling, even if that means taking on more national debt.
KING: NPR's Brian Mann. Brian, thanks so much.
MANN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.