How Orange County Residents Really Feel About Masks, Politics

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Over the past 365 days, Orange County residents have run the gamut of properly responding to nationwide issues related to the global coronavirus pandemic, the California lockdown, and whether or not children should be in school.

During the initial days of the coronavirus shutdown, Orange County's top doctor Nichole Quick recommended mandatory face masks for all residents. That was met with public outcry and a flurry of personal attacks against the doctor. Less than a month later, Dr. Quick resigned following sharp criticism of her and threats to her family's safety.

In the months that followed, a flurry of anti-mask sentiments was depicted in the media. Still, according to the Chapman study, Orange County residents said they predominately adhered to mask-wearing when asked.

The phone survey sampled 703 residents on issues across the board including whether residents would agree to be vaccinated, as well as pointed questions about their politics.

Chapman University researchers discovered that most residents surveyed felt that coronavirus was a real threat (83 percent), that people wanted to adhere to social distancing (90 percent), and agreed to the national mask mandate (70 percent.)

Of the major issues affecting Orange County in the spring of 2021, residents polled feel the top three issues are:

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When asked about whether the pandemic caused the residents financial hardship, Orange Count residents said they suffered either no financial hardship (48 percent) or moderate financial hardship (39 percent).

More Orange County residents were confident in Dr. Fauci (40 percent) than with President Biden (27 percent). Far fewer were confident OC Sheriff Don Barnes (22 percent), the Orange County Health Care Agency (16 percent), Gov. Gavin Newsom (14 percent). Fewer still expressed confidence in the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and their handling of the pandemic response (9 percent).

Gov. Newsom held the lack of confidence record, with 32 percent of those polled saying they had no confidence in the governor.

There was more division in those who were asked whether officials went too far or not far enough in fighting the virus, showing a "major partisan divide among responses," a Chapman University spokesperson said. Among Orange County Democrats, 81 percent said they are looking forward to getting vaccinated. Only 58 percent of the Republicans surveyed said they would get vaccinated.

Of those who said they wanted the vaccine, 55 percent of those polled felt that coronavirus in Orange County was only somewhat under control.

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Fred Smoller, associate professor of political science at Chapman University, discussed the disparities between party members and neighbors.

“In contrast to its reputation as the home of conservative extremists who think the threat posed by the coronavirus is overblown and that efforts to contain it are over the top, data suggest that most Orange County residents believe coronavirus is a serious threat and are supportive of government action to fight it,” Smoller said. “However, the political polarization that exists nationally is also very present here.”

Mike Moodian, a leadership studies lecturer at Chapman, discussed the modern Orange County resident's varying views.

“OC today is diverse both culturally and politically," Moodian said. "Registration numbers for the two major political parties are relatively close, and the county has a significant number of independent voters. OC is increasingly looking for like the rest of the country as opposed to being an ultra-conservative outlier among coastal California counties.”

Orange County has a long reputation as being the land of John Wayne, the Save Our State initiative, and the John Birch Society, Moodian says. Still, the county has changed.

When it comes to the controversial presidential election of 2020, of those surveyed, almost 70 percent believe the election was fair. Both Democrats and Republicans expressed that President Trump would go down in history as a "less than average president."Still, that survey question was declined by 57 percent of those asked.

President Biden's Orange County approval rating is higher than the national average Gallup polls. According to the survey, 63 percent approve of his current performance in office. Far fewer expressed positive feelings about the state of California.

"Less than half of those surveyed felt California was headed in the right direction, and about half of those surveyed fell that Gov. Gavin Newsom should be recalled.

Overarchingly, looking ahead to the future, about 58 percent of Orange County residents believed that 3 or 4 years down the road things quality of life in Orange County would be exactly as it is now.

"While the survey was conducted under the direction of Chapman faculty, responders were randomly selected from all over the county, " a spokesperson for the study told Patch. "They don't necessarily have any relationship to Chapman."

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