60% of Americans say scientists should play an active role in policy debates about scientific issues as of August 2019 in a Pew Research Center Survey.  This is strongly divided by partisanship though, with 73% of Democrats versus 43% of Republicans supporting involvement of the scientific community in debates concerning scientific policy.  Belief in the scientific method is similarly divided along partisan lines.  However, trust in science also varied by field at the time of the study, with Democrats more trustful of climate researchers than Republicans, but, at the time of the study, equally trustful of medical doctors and medical researchers.  That being said, the general tone of top Republican politicians have suggested the expansion of less positive views of the sciences to include public health and medical fields.

Partisanship and Perceptions of Science

According to a Pew Research study released in June of 2020, 73% of Democrats think the actions of ordinary people matter a great deal in affecting its spread, versus 44% of Republicans say the same.  65% of Republicans say they would be comfortable eating at a restaurant, versus 28% of Democrats.   Another paper paper portrays partisanship’s direct correlation with low adherence to social distancing protocol in the US among those who identify with the Republican Party.  This partisan divide grew greater over the course of the data collection period, between March and June.  These trends held even when controlled for infection rate.  

Partisanship and General Covid-19 Precautionary Behaviors

-  Perceptions of Science
- Perceptions of Civil Liberties
-  Other Covid-19 Precautionary Behaviors

University of California, Davis

According to Dynata data released in July of 2020, Nationally, about 59% of Americans report using masks always, 27% use masks sometimes, and 14% use masks never.  This data set reports that mask usage was generally been increasing through the month of July.  Mask usage varied by partisanship by about 20 points, with Democrats more likely than Republicans to report using a mask.  This difference was still visible even when controlling for zip code and age.  In this data set, party preference was the strongest predictive factor of mask usage.

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