As COVID surges, Americans remain divided on the threat. What will it take to bring them together?

When the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was reported in January, most people would not have predicted this by Thanksgiving: 11 million Americans infected, more than 250,000 dead, and a fall surge of record-breaking daily cases as the virus runs rampant.

Yet even as COVID-19 cases pile up at a staggering rate, in a politically divided nation Republicans and Democrats remain in stark disagreement over the threat of the virus and the steps necessary to mitigate its spread.

That has surprised political scientists and public health experts who thought that...