Coronavirus Polling
Coronavirus Polling
[A panel only with text. At the top there is three paragraphs of explanatory text. Below that is a paragraph in smaller gray font with link to sources. Below that there are two columns of poll results, each with a heading. There are six polls in the left and seven polls in the right column. Instead of a bulleted list, each poll has its percent that agrees given to the left of the statement, which is thus aligned to the right of this percentage. At the end of each statement there is a reference in brackets in gray font.] It's hard to get people to agree on anything in polls. But we agree about the coronavirus. Here's how Americans feel about COVID-19, along with other topics that get similar levels of agreement for comparison. Compiled with help from HuffPost polling editor Ariel Edwards-Levy. Sources: xkcd.com/2305/sources
[Left column:] Recent coronavirus polls 86% say "stay-at-home orders are responsible government policies that are saving lives" rather than "an over-reaction" (ABC/Ipsos) 85% oppose reopening schools (NPR/Marist) 91% oppose resuming big sporting events (NPR/M.) 85% trust local health officials and health care workers (Axios/Ipsos) 93% are trying to maintain 6-foot distances while in public (Axios/Ipsos) 81% say Americans should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to stop the Coronavirus even if it means continued damage to the economy (Politico/Morning Consult)
[Right column:] Other polls 81% enjoy apple pie (HuffPost/YouGov) 76% feel positively about kittens (HuffPost/YouGov) 84% have a favorable impression of Tom Hanks (Ipsos 2018) 89% say fair elections are important to democracy (Pew) 86% feel positively toward Betty White (Ipsos 2011) 86% do not trust Kim Jong-Un to do the right thing (Pew 2019) 64% are concerned about the emergence of "murder hornets" (YouGov)

This comic is another comic in a series of comics related to the COVID-19 pandemic .
The comic compares opinion polling of COVID-19 related topics to polling of other, mostly unrelated topics. The American public often tends to be sharply divided about major political and social issues, but polling shows that the country is remarkably united about the dangers posed by the COVID-19 and the measures necessary to prevent its spread.  This is notable, because responses to this pandemic have significant political and economic implications, which usually results in major division and distrust. The poll results also contradict the extensive news coverage of notable anti-lockdown protests prominent in many major cities; by implication, this comic is arguing that such protests are unrepresentative and disproportionately covered. Or else that this vocal and demonstrative minority is almost the only group making their opinion public in such a newsworthy manner.
To put these majority opinions in perspective, polls on other topics are shown with similar but slightly smaller high percentages of likemindedness but on extremely uncontroversial questions [ citation needed ] such as liking apple pie or Tom Hanks, or the importance of elections to democracy.
The title text refers to the chapter "How To Win an Election" in Munroe's book How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems , in which a similar set of near-unanimous survey questions are shown for prospecting candidates to support, or, alternately, oppose, thus guaranteeing their popularity or lack thereof.  To see what this politician's speeches might have looked like, we can look at FiveThirtyEight's "perfect stump speeches" that espouse only opinions held by a majority of Republicans or Democrats .
The polls cited in this comic are all linked at http://xkcd.com/2305/sources .

[A panel only with text. At the top there is three paragraphs of explanatory text. Below that is a paragraph in smaller gray font with link to sources. Below that there are two columns of poll results, each with a heading. There are six polls in the left and seven polls in the right column. Instead of a bulleted list, each poll has its percent that agrees given to the left of the statement, which is thus aligned to the right of this percentage. At the end of each statement there is a reference in brackets in gray font.] It's hard to get people to agree on anything in polls. But we agree about the coronavirus. Here's how Americans feel about COVID-19, along with other topics that get similar levels of agreement for comparison. Compiled with help from HuffPost polling editor Ariel Edwards-Levy. Sources: xkcd.com/2305/sources
[Left column:] Recent coronavirus polls 86% say "stay-at-home orders are responsible government policies that are saving lives" rather than "an over-reaction" (ABC/Ipsos) 85% oppose reopening schools (NPR/Marist) 91% oppose resuming big sporting events (NPR/M.) 85% trust local health officials and health care workers (Axios/Ipsos) 93% are trying to maintain 6-foot distances while in public (Axios/Ipsos) 81% say Americans should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to stop the Coronavirus even if it means continued damage to the economy (Politico/Morning Consult)
[Right column:] Other polls 81% enjoy apple pie (HuffPost/YouGov) 76% feel positively about kittens (HuffPost/YouGov) 84% have a favorable impression of Tom Hanks (Ipsos 2018) 89% say fair elections are important to democracy (Pew) 86% feel positively toward Betty White (Ipsos 2011) 86% do not trust Kim Jong-Un to do the right thing (Pew 2019) 64% are concerned about the emergence of "murder hornets" (YouGov)
