Poll: Majority of Voters Oppose Shifting to Remote Learning, Vaccine Passports

A majority of U.S. voters oppose draconian coronavirus policies, including shifting schools to remote learning, vaccine passports, and mandatory booster shots.

According to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll released on Monday, 65.5 percent of respondents say they “oppose shifting schools to remote learning.” Nearly 73 percent are against a six-week worldwide shutdown “to end the pandemic once and for all.”

Likewise, 52.9 percent of 1,000 U.S. voters polled between Dec. 27-30 opposed requiring booster vaccination within the next 90 days in public spaces, and 54.5 percent are against vaccine passports for public spaces.

U.S. voters do approve of some coronavirus measures, including social distancing and masking — 64.6 percent support social distancing and 54.2 percent support masking in public spaces.

When asked when they think the coronavirus pandemic will end in the United States, most voters said “in a few years,” at 32.4 percent and, more worryingly, “never” at 32.3 percent. Nearly 18 percent say the pandemic will end in the U.S. by the end of 2022.

The survey, which has a margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points, also found that 47.2 percent of voters disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, compared to 46.90 who approve.

The poll was taken right before at least 3,200 schools closed due to the low-risk omicron variant. Many large school districts, like Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland, have decided to extend winter break to implement wide-scale testing before returning to school, as well as closures or remote learning.