Two-thirds of American adults approve of governments mandating Covid shots but half don’t believe businesses should use vaccine passports, poll finds
- A new poll found that 62% of respondents ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ approve of leaders at local, state and federal level requiring residents to get the Covid shot
- Men were more likely to be in favor of government mandates than women and Democrats were more likely than Republicans
- Another poll from the same researchers showed 50% don’t think businesses should require vaccine passports for admission to their premises
- Public health officials have previously said vaccine mandates could backfire and discourage people from being immunized against coronavirus
A majority of Americans believe governments should be allowed to impose mandates for COVID-19 shots but that businesses shouldn’t require vaccine passports, two new surveys finds.
Both conducted by the COVID States Project – run by Northeastern University, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and Northwestern University – researchers asked various questions about vaccine requirements.
Results from the first poll showed that two-thirds of residents ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ approve of leaders at the local, state and federal level requiring residents to get the immunization.
However, the second poll found that about 50 percent of people said establishments including restaurants, stadiums and stores should not use vaccine passports to allow admission.
A new poll found that 62% of respondents ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ approve of leaders at local, state and federal level requiring residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine
Another poll from the same researchers showed 50% don’t think businesses should require vaccine passports for admission to their premises
‘It seems like the public is more comfortable with mandates when they’re characterized as coming from the government,’ co-author Dr Matthew Baum, a professor of global communications and public policy at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, told Axios.
‘When you put businesses into the question as the responsible party…support is just a lot lower.’
More than 49 percent of Americans have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 39 percent have been fully vaccinated.
But nearly 20 percent of the population are vaccine hesitant – with the highest rates among Republicans – and notions of mandates for vaccination have become politically divisive.
Some liberal states, including New York, are using vaccine passports at some events.
Meanwhile, conservative states such as Texas and Florida have passed executive orders prohibiting vaccine passports and/or requirements.
While public health officials are desperately trying to convince Americans to get vaccinated, they worry that mandates would backfire and only make more people hesitant to get the shots.
For the first survey, pollsters distributed questionnaires online to more than 21,700 adults between April 1 and May 3.
In the first survey, looking at mandatory vaccinations for Americans, they found that a majority, 62 percent, supported the idea of federal, state, and local governments requiring that ‘everyone get a vaccine.’
A plurality, 38 percent, ‘strongly’ approved while another 24 percent said they ‘somewhat’ approved.
Men were more likely to say they ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ agreed with government mandates than women at 65 percent compared to 58 percent.
Additionally, Democrats were more likely to support the idea with 81 percent in favor in comparison with 44 percent of Republicans.
For the second survey, 12,900 respondents received questions about vaccine during the April 2021 survey wave.
The question about whether or not they supported businesses should require or allowed to require proof of vaccination for admission to their premises was asked four different ways.
An average of the four wordings showed that a little more than 50 percent believed that companies should not use vaccine passports.
Only 27.5 percent said yes and 22.5 percent said they didn’t know.
Once more, men were likely to support vaccine passports than women and Democrats were much more likely to be in favor of vaccine passports with between 43 and 50 percent said ‘yes’ but only 12 to 17 percent of Republicans agreed.
