Survey: Increasing Number of Americans Support Vaccine Mandates

An increasing number of Americans support vaccine mandates, according to a survey from the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States.

The survey, taken June 9 to July 7, 2021, among 20,669 respondents, asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the following measure which federal, state, and local governments could take to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the next 30 days?”

Across the board, 64 percent said they support “requiring everyone to get a COVID-19 vaccine” — a two-point uptick from the 62 percent who said the same in April and May. An even greater percentage, 70 percent, said they support requiring a vaccine to get on an airplane — a three-point increase from the previous survey.

Sixty-one percent support requiring children to get a vaccine to be allowed in school, and 66 percent support requiring college students to get a vaccine in order to go back as well.

Majorities across all subgroups support universal vaccine mandates minus one: Republicans. Only 45 percent support a universal vaccine mandate.

“The partisan gap in support for vaccine mandates remains vast, with Democrats nearly twice as likely as Republicans to approve (84% vs. 45%),” the survey found, noting that both parties “increased their support for vaccine mandates by 3 points from April/May, when we observed an identical 39 point gap.”

“Independents, however, did not change their support level (57% in both survey waves),” the survey added.

The survey also found that 20 to 30 percent of the public “say they are either uncertain or will not get the vaccine.” Their most recent survey found 14.9 percent of unvaccinated individuals who are eligible to receive one saying they are “extremely unlikely” to do so. An additional 4.5 percent say they are “somewhat” unlikely to get the vaccine.

On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) openly called on private businesses to discriminate against individuals who are not vaccinated, urging them to adopt “vaccine-only” admission to their establishments.

“Private businesses, I am asking them and suggesting to them go to vaccine only admission. Go to vaccine only admission. We did this,” he said.

“Radio City Music Hall months ago reopened vaccine only, sold out all the shows. Sports arenas, they went up to about 90 percent vaccine only,” he continued.

“Private businesses, bars, restaurants — go to a vaccine-only admission. I believe it’s in your best business interest,” Cuomo pleaded, pitching the requirement as the ultimate incentive.

“If you say to people, well if you don’t have a vaccine you can’t get into these establishments, then you’ll see a real incentive to get vaccinated,” the Democrat governor added.

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