Today is Saturday, April 2, 2022. If an online article on my smartphone from CNN is illustrative of how Americans now feel toward the pandemic that upended everyone’s life for more than 2 years, we can almost safely say that coronavirus is no longer a top issue for Americans. Unfortunately, that’s good news for Republicans, according to the analysis written by Harry Enten who is a frequent contributor to CNN. The piece is entitled “Coronavirus is no longer a top issue for Americans. That’s good news for Republicans.”

The analysis begins with Enten indicating that the week was more of a normal week for regular news, which is something that we haven’t had in a very long time. The “slap heard around the globe” seemed to be the paramount news item that had everyone talking about whether it was justified or not. Even my favorite political commentator Bill Maher devoted an inordinate amount of time discussing the implications of Smith’s sock of Chris Rock on the 94th installment of the Academy Awards last Sunday on his show yesterday. He went so far as to heap scorn on Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia, saying that if this were the only thing she has, she should consider herself very fortunate indeed. I’m sure he will receive criticism for this comment.

To illustrate his point, Enten refers to the announcement of the government authorizing a fourth COVID-19 vaccine for adults 50 and older just this week as barely making a dent in the overall gauge of people’s coronavirus radar. The news seemed a bit anticlimactic on this front, he suggests.

A recent Gallup poll provides confirming insight into where people feel toward the virus’s hold on their imaginations into the third year of this pandemic. To me, this is quite stunning: according to the poll, just 3% of Americans said the coronavirus or diseases are the top problem facing the country. This appears to be a fantastically low percentage, in my view.

Only two years ago (April 2020), a record 45% said the coronavirus was the main problem in the country. Even Enten had to do a double take when noting the new percentage of Americans expressing concern toward the threat of the ongoing coronavirus to their continued health and safety.

As a corroboration of this lack of concern toward the pandemic, Enten cites fewer mentions on cable news with regard to COVID-19 in March (less than 2,700) than in any month since the beginning of the pandemic. “At its peak, there were over 17,000 monthly mentions of ‘covid’ on cable news,” he says.

This shift in coronavirus coverage likely helps repugnicans, Enten opines. This is related to the higher percentages of Americans who feel the economy is the top problem facing the country right now. Economic problems are now cited by more Americans as the top issue (35%) than any other problem, according to Gallup.

Here Biden’s approval rating on the economy was only 33%, per a new ABC News-Washington Post poll from February. This statistic I cannot fathom, but I’m going to print it verbatim here anyway: “Voters trusted the Republican Party as best to handle the economy by 20 points (55% to 35% for Democrats),” according to the ABC News-Washington Post survey.

“Thus a midterm election fought on the economy and issues related to it (e.g., inflation) is an election Republicans are in a stronger position to win.” Enten predicts that the party of Dumpf will “likely do well in November.”

Even the war in Ukraine has not captured the attention of most Americans in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Enten states. The poll yields only 13% of Americans who said that war and foreign conflict was the most important problem facing the nation, which was down from 14% the previous week, 16% two weeks ago, and 17% three weeks ago.

The amount of time devoted to the war in Ukraine on cable news has sagged, according to the poll. This past week, there were about 4,500 mentions of Ukraine during the Monday-Wednesday period on cable news this past week. Over the same three days four weeks prior, Ukraine was mentioned about 7,000 times. This dip in news coverage has actually been more apparent on Fox News. On Fox News, mentions of the Ukrainian conflict have fallen by 50%, while on CNN and MSNBC, they’ve fallen by about 28%.

The political persuasion of those Americans who are less likely to care about what’s going on abroad tends to be Republican. About three weeks ago, just 17% of repugnicans told Ipsos that war and foreign conflict was the country’s most important problem. This week, it’s down to a measly 8%. However, four times as many Republicans (32%) said the nation’s top problem was the economy, unemployment, and jobs, per this week’s poll. Among Democrats, 18% ranked the same issues as the top problem compared with 13% who said war and foreign conflicts was the major problem confronting the nation.

This analysis by a top statistician for CNN is just despairing and concerning. Democrats must get their act together if they want to stop repugnicans from gaining ground during the midterms. The White House should be taking these latest poll findings very seriously if they want to forestall the expected outcome of the midterm elections, where they could very well lose their majority in the House.

As for the major findings of these various polls, I’m shocked that no one said the threat to democracy as being a top problem confronting the country in the wake of the January 6th insurrection. Maybe that was not even asked of respondents which would justify its absence from the overall findings. Or the other explanation is that Americans are not bothered by the developments arising from the investigation into the events of January 6. Could we dare say that they could care less if they were living under an autocracy in a few years? I just can’t accept this awful truth.

I’m now hearing what “Rocky,” our own Sylvester Stallone, is now saying about Will Smith’s assault of Chris Rock on TikTok. He voices his condemnation of the slap, especially when Smith was first seen laughing with everyone else at the beginning of Rock’s joke; it wasn’t until his wife conveyed her displeasure over the jibe that he went “all macho,” as Stallone refers to it, and then goes up onstage to slap the comedian. Why are we even discussing this incident almost a week out? Do we need such a distraction from the other news stories dominating our airwaves?

Anyway, it seems like everyone and then some has an opinion on this event that overshadowed the entire Oscar award show! Enough already!

Let’s hope the nice weather experienced today extends into tomorrow.

Stay safe and be well.