The Biden administration is relying on the assumption that more people will support than oppose his proposed employer vaccine mandate since there are more vaccinated people than unvaccinated. But an early poll shows the president is wrong: His plan to force employers with more than 100 employees to mandate either vaccination or weekly testing is divisive and unconvincing to many.
A Quinnipiac University poll found a slight majority of people (51%) disapprove and that nearly half (48%) agreed that it goes too far. Only 10% claimed the mandate does not go far enough, and 39% said it’s just right. When pushed with specifics about the mandate, the numbers changed slightly — 53% of respondents approved, and 46% of them stood by their initial disapproval.
Respondents actually held rather nuanced views. For example, 57% said healthcare workers should have to get the vaccine, but only 50% said employees of other private businesses, such as restaurants, should be made to do the same.
The same goes for requiring proof of vaccination. Fifty-three percent of respondents approved of airlines requiring proof of vaccination, while only 42% said the same of restaurants.
The biggest takeaway from this poll is that there’s no consensus on how the government should respond to COVID-19. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they view the COVID-19 vaccines as a matter of public health, while 43% said vaccination is an issue of personal freedom. If President Joe Biden is relying on the public’s support as a justification for his sweeping mandate, he needs to think again. The support just isn’t there.
