Two years after COVID-19 first forced widespread closures in the U.S., Americans are more optimistic about the trajectory of the pandemic than they have been since last June before the delta and omicron variants of the virus swept through the country. As COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline, Americans' concern about contracting the disease has dropped precipitously.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Americans' views of it have tracked closely with the ebbs and flows in COVID-19 cases. That is, during periods of high transmission and infection, the public has evaluated the situation as worsening, and when the virus has receded somewhat, assessments have turned more positive.