A new poll from Monmouth University out Wednesday finds Americans are seriously pessimistic about when the United States will get the COVID-19 outbreak under control, and that a majority of Americans support vaccination requirements for different categories of workers.
In this poll, 45% of Americans say they are very concerned about themselves or someone in their family becoming seriously ill from coronavirus, which is a 15-point jump from Monmouth’s July poll.
Only about one in 10, or 11% of Americans think the country will get the outbreak under control and be able to return to normal within the next month or two, 3% by the end of this year.
A plurality — 34% — think this will happen sometime next year, while about three in 10, or 28%, think this will happen later than that. Around two in 10, or 22%, don’t think this will ever happen.
When asked by ABC News what the White House message is to Americans who are so pessimistic, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the White House understands the frustration and that “[President Joe Biden] made clear last week he’s going to use every lever possible from the federal government to reduce the spread of COVID to save — to protect more people to save more lives. That is what we will hope lead to us going to back to a version of normal.”
Also on Wednesday, President Biden met with EOs and business leaders to discuss COVID-19 mandates. Following Biden’s announcement last week that the Labor Department is working to require that businesses with 100 or more employees order their workers to be fully vaccinated or submit a negative COVID-19 test at least weekly.
Numerous corporations, including Amtrak, Microsoft, United Airlines and ABC News’ parent company, Walt Disney, issued vaccine mandates for their workforces before Biden’s announcement last week. Some Republicans accused Biden of overstepping his authority and have threatened to sue the administration over the vaccine mandate.
Source-ABC
