Democrats are overwhelmingly for it, while most Republicans are against it.
A survey of Americans on President Joe Biden’s plan to require most workers to get either vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19 finds a deep and familiar divide: Democrats are overwhelmingly for it, while most Republicans are against it.
However, there are 3 key situations most can come to an agreement on and rated over 50% when polls were ran.
- 61% of Americans favor vaccination requirements for air travel
- 53% in the U.S. support them for dining in a restaurant
- 56% favor these requirements at their office or work site
Americans’ political identity is strongly related to their opinions about vaccine requirements, echoing similar partisan differences on such issues as vaccination hesitancy, mask requirements and the importance of COVID-19 as the nation’s top problem.
Very large majorities of Democrats are in favor of each of the five vaccination requirements tested, while slightly smaller, but still substantial, majorities of Republicans are opposed to each. Independents are more evenly divided, although majorities of independents are opposed to four of the situations, with a precise 50/50 split in opinions about requiring vaccinations for air travel.
The variation across these party/vaccination status groups is extreme. For example, 96% of vaccinated Democrats favor the requirement for proof of vaccination before flying on an airplane, compared with 12% of unvaccinated Republicans. 94% of vaccinated Democrats favor the requirement for attendance at events, compared with 9% of unvaccinated Republicans.
Still, vaccinated Democrats, independents and Republicans are in all instances more positive about vaccine requirements than those in each political group who are not vaccinated. And Democrats and Republicans, despite some variation by vaccination status, remain poles apart in their views — with majorities of Democrats, regardless of vaccination status, approving of all five vaccination requirements and more than half of Republicans, regardless of vaccination status, disapproving.
The bottom line at this point, is the actual proof of vaccination requirements across the five situations tested in this research are varied. Most U.S. airlines, dining establishments, and hotels are not requiring proof for vaccinations. But a rather large number of indoor/outdoor events, such as concerts, are definitely requiring proof.
The largest issue is company workers not wanting to be vaccinated and the significant toll it’s taking on staffing issues. Polls have found that more Republicans are taking a stand in the workforce and even walking off the job, due to not wanting to take the vaccinations.
The implication of these attitudinal data for businesses and companies contemplating vaccination requirements is the finding that such measures will by no means be greeted with universal approval. A significant minority of Americans and U.S. workers oppose such moves, and many of those do so strongly, although obviously the particular customers or workers involved in each situation will make a big difference in determining the precise level of opposition.
