Republicans and Democrats have many ideological differences, and coronavirus is now on the list.

According to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll, 62% of Republicans say the seriousness of the coronavirus is generally exaggerated in the news while only 31% of Democrats share that same feeling.

As of March 9, 2020, there have been over 115,000 cases of COVID-19 across over 100 countries around the world. There have been hundreds of U.S. cases as well, and the numbers continue to rise.

The survey, which polled a total of 4,633 individuals (1,939 D, 1,955 R, and 618 I), also found that 47% of Democrats believe the virus spreads very easily versus 34% of Republicans. And more Democrats than Republicans said that they would avoid attending large events as a way of protecting themselves against the virus.

View photos There have been over 600 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. so far. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance) More

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,115 Americans online had similar findings: About four out of 10 Democrats think the coronavirus poses an imminent threat, compared to about 20% of Republicans.

“Our hyper-polarization is so strong that we don’t even assess a potential health crisis in the same way,” Jennifer McCoy, a Georgia State political science professor, told Reuters. “And so it impedes our ability to address it.”

View photos U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about the Coronavirus response while flanked by Vice President Mike Pence during a coronavirus briefing with health insurers in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, on March 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) More

Republicans may be influenced by President Trump, who has made several inaccurate claims about the coronavirus since the outbreak hit the U.S. During a news conference at the White House on Feb. 26, he said that “we’re going very substantially down, not up.” However, the CDC said just moments earlier during the same conference that they were expecting more cases.

Trump also expressed skepticism at the mortality rate number provided by the WHO and suggested that some people could get better by “sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”

The Fox News effect

Some conservative news pundits have accused the media of using the outbreak as a way to go after President Trump. Fox Business anchor Trish Regan accused Democrats of politicizing the virus as a way to impeach the president.

“The hate is boiling over,” she said. “Many in the liberal media are using [the] coronavirus in an attempt to demonize and destroy the president.”

Meanwhile, her Fox News colleague Sean Hannity called the media coverage a “hoax” by liberals trying to “bludgeon the president.”

“I think we’ve got to be very real with the American people,” he said on his show. “I don’t like how we are scaring people unnecessarily, and that is that unless you have an immune system that’s compromised and you’re older and you have other underlying health issues, you are not going to die 99% from this virus.”

View photos President Donald Trump, center, speaks to members of the media to address the nation about the coronavirus threat in the Brady Press Briefing room of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. With Trump are from l-r., National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, Vice President Mike Pence and CDC Director Robert Redfield.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) More