A 51% majority of Americans favor President Joe Biden's plan requiring most workers to either get vaccinated or undergo weekly screenings, with just 34% opposed to it, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Thursday. Another 14% were noncommittal.
The Associated Press framed that 17-point advantage for Biden's policy as a "deep and familiar divide" because Democrats support Biden's mandate at a rate of 77%. At the same time, Republicans oppose it at a rate of 62%—a healthy majority, to be sure, but still less than two-thirds of GOP voters. Among independents, a 37% plurality supported the mandate while 35% opposed and 28% were noncommittal.
But the AP's partisan framing obscured the real divide, which is between vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans. Vaccinated Americans approved of the policy at 64% (with 23% opposed), while unvaccinated Americans opposed the policy at 67% (with 14% supporting)—an almost even split.
The connective tissue here isn't partisanship so much as it is vaccination status. And once again, strong majorities of vaccinated Americans across party lines support the Biden administration stepping in to set sound public health policy that helps to keep Americans safe.
The poll also showed President Biden receiving a 57% approval rating from respondents for his handling of the pandemic. That’s not quite as strong as the 66% approval he received in July, but it's a slight rebound from his 54% pandemic rating in August—another sign that Biden's aggressive vaccine push hasn't hurt his standing with the American public and, if anything, may be helping him.
The Associated Press framed that 17-point advantage for Biden's policy as a "deep and familiar divide" because Democrats support Biden's mandate at a rate of 77%. At the same time, Republicans oppose it at a rate of 62%—a healthy majority, to be sure, but still less than two-thirds of GOP voters. Among independents, a 37% plurality supported the mandate while 35% opposed and 28% were noncommittal.
But the AP's partisan framing obscured the real divide, which is between vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans. Vaccinated Americans approved of the policy at 64% (with 23% opposed), while unvaccinated Americans opposed the policy at 67% (with 14% supporting)—an almost even split.
The connective tissue here isn't partisanship so much as it is vaccination status. And once again, strong majorities of vaccinated Americans across party lines support the Biden administration stepping in to set sound public health policy that helps to keep Americans safe.
The poll also showed President Biden receiving a 57% approval rating from respondents for his handling of the pandemic. That’s not quite as strong as the 66% approval he received in July, but it's a slight rebound from his 54% pandemic rating in August—another sign that Biden's aggressive vaccine push hasn't hurt his standing with the American public and, if anything, may be helping him.