Americans might be more on board with vaccine mandates than mask mandates

[Nevilledog]

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Aaron Blake
@AaronBlake
New poll shows just 52% of Americans favor re-upping mask and social distancing guidelines.

Meanwhile, other polls have shown ~60% of people favor *mandating* vaccinations.

A commentary on our moment in mitigation.

Analysis | Americans might be more on board with vaccine mandates than mask mandates
A year ago, 75 percent of Americans supported mask mandates. Then guidelines were relaxed. And they're being reinstituted in a very different public-opinion climate.
washingtonpost.com
8:34 AM · Aug 2, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/02/americans-might-be-more-board-with-vaccine-mandates-than-mask-mandates/

It seems like ancient history right now, but there was a time in which a vast majority of Americans agreed on certain things when it came to the coronavirus pandemic. And high on that list was masks. Even as then-President Donald Trump was eschewing them last year, Americans were on a very different page. An Associated Press-NORC poll in July 2020 showed that fully 75 percent of Americans supported not just wearing masks, but requiring them in public when you were around someone else. Just 13 percent disagreed. Even Republicans agreed with mandates, 58-27.

Then, as vaccinations took hold, health officials somewhat surprisingly relaxed those mandates and guidelines. And now, as they attempt to ramp them up again in response to outbreaks, the sledding is looking much tougher.

A new Monmouth University poll released Monday morning shows only a little more than half of Americans support “instituting, or reinstituting, face mask and social distancing guidelines in your state.” The split is 52 percent in favor vs. 46 percent opposed. And the partisan divides are about what you’d expect: While 85 percent of Democrats support this, about one-quarter of Republicans agree.

And this, it bears emphasizing, is a considerably lower bar than a mask mandate; it’s merely reinstituting mask and social distancing guidelines. It’s logical that could lead to mandates in some areas, and it has coincided with mandates in places such as Washington, D.C., Sacramento, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Mo., and New Orleans. But it doesn’t require them itself. Yet this earns the support of only around half of Americans — far less than the three-fourths who supported full mandates as recently as December.

*snip*

[cilla4progress]

1. It was blanking hot on Friday

I wore my mask inside Costco, other shopping.

I frigging hate it, but I did it, because you know what

I'M A GROWN-UP!!!