Support for mandates has increased across partisan and demographic subgroups.
As infections from the delta variant surge, the percentage of Americans who support vaccine mandates has risen to 64% from 58% in April.
According to the latest poll by the COVID States Project, the majority of respondents from nearly all states approve of an overall vaccine mandate as well as specific mandates for plane travel and in-person schooling.
The poll was conducted by a university consortium that includes Northwestern, Northeastern, Harvard, and Rutgers University.
“The support for mandates is higher than many realize and increasing, likely due to the spread of the delta variant and anxiety about school starting this fall,” said political scientist James Druckman, one of the project researchers.
Druckman is the Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and associate director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern.
Between June 9 and July 7, Druckman and colleagues surveyed 20,669 individuals across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Respondents were asked whether they approved or disapproved of four types of federal, state, and local government vaccination mandates:
- an overall mandate requiring everyone to get a COVID-19 vaccine;
- required vaccinations to get on an airplane;
- required vaccinations for children to be allowed in school; and
- required vaccinations for college students to return to school
While the May report also showed strong public support for vaccine mandates, the number of Americans supporting an overall vaccine mandate has increased during each wave of the survey, from 54% in February to 58% in April, to 64% in June. Support is also higher for specific mandates around vaccinations for flying (70%) and returning to university (66%) or school (61%).
The August report also shows a narrowing gap across nearly all partisan and demographic subgroups. But while 70% of the eligible U.S. population is now vaccinated, there remains a persistent 20% to 30% of Americans who are uncertain or unwilling to be vaccinated. Major differences were seen in terms of party affiliation and where respondents lived: Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to approve of such mandates (84% to 45%), and rural residents were 20 percentage points less supportive of mandates than urban dwellers (73% to 53%).
“The spike from Delta may be finally closing some of the partisan vaccine divide, but there is still a way to go. Increased messaging from Republican leaders will continue to be vital,” said Druckman.
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1 Comment
Certainly vaccine mandates are the right thing, but the vaccine only attacks the protein spike in the shell that covers the virus.
All the variants have different spike proteins, with Delta having one that’s more efficient at getting around the vaccines. But the real problem is in the virus and why two of the most dangerous, MERS and Covid-19, are so infectious. My independent research has found multiple one-in-a-million nucleotide sequence matches between all the coronaviruses and the human genome. Those sequences are the same as some of the DHU loops of human tRNA. Using those loops and their anticodon matches, viruses may be able to fool the nucleus membrane in cells to allow the virus to enter and associate with the human DNA, creating more opportunities for further infection. Our immune system may be compromised and may no longer be able to stop the virus and other diseases from attacking organs throughout the body. Vaccines that attack the virus protein shells while ignoring their contents are doomed to failure from the Darwin effect, but recognizing these DHU loops suggests a possible approach to successful coronavirus vaccines. For MERS, eliminating the nucleotide sequence CAGTGGTAG from the virus may make it less infectious and stimulate the body to create antibodies to attack the entire virus. And eliminating the nucleotide sequence TAGTGGTGAG from Covid-19 may do the same thing. Only the infection process is considered in my work, not the innate virulence of the virus. For more info, check out this YouTube, Coronavirus – Using Your DNA Against You. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd4OD4GpsJI