55% of Americans now say the US government was not prepared for coronavirus

• Roughly one-third of Americans said the US government was not prepared "at all" for the coronavirus pandemic, a new Insider poll found.
• Overall, 55% said the US government was not prepared for the virus.
• Meanwhile, just 4% of Americans think the US government was "extremely prepared," while 10% said "very prepared."
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A majority of Americans (55%) now say the US government was not prepared for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Insider poll.

Roughly one-third of Americans said the government was not prepared "at all" for the virus.

Poll participants were asked: Do you feel the US government is sufficiently prepared to handle coronavirus cases?

Overall, 30% said the US government was "not at all prepared," while 25% said "not so prepared."

This is a huge uptick from the same poll in late February, when about 40% of Americans said they didn't think the US government was prepared.

The latest poll also found that just 4% of Americans think the US government was "extremely prepared," while 10% said "very prepared." Meanwhile, 29% said "somewhat prepared.

Comparatively, 7% of Americans in late February said the US government was "extremely prepared," while 12% said "very prepared."

Here's a full breakdown of how Americans responded to the question of how prepared they feel the US government is for coronavirus:

• 4% said "extremely prepared"
• 10% said "very prepared"
• 29% said "somewhat prepared"
• 25% said "not so prepared"
• 30% said "not at all prepared"
• 2% said "I don't know"

When this poll was first taken in late February, there were relatively few cases of coronavirus in the US and the death toll was fairly low. But the virus spread rapidly across the US in March, hitting New York City especially hard.

The US the global epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, with more cases than anywhere else in the world. As of Monday afternoon, there were over 572,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US, and over 23,000 deaths.

The pandemic has also crippled the US economy as major cities nationwide have shut down, resulting in roughly 17 million filing for unemployment in a matter of weeks.

The Trump administration has faced widespread criticism over its handling of the pandemic. The US has struggled to set up a robust system of testing for the virus due to early stumbles, and hard hit states are still struggling to obtain vital, life-saving medical supplies.

President Donald Trump also spent weeks downplaying the threat of the virus before declaring a national emergency in mid-March, and ignored numerous warnings of an impending pandemic - including from the intelligence community.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,107 respondents were collected on April 10-11 with a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points and a 95% confidence level.

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