Nearly half of all Americans disapprove of Biden’s vaccine mandates

In a Quinnipiac survey released on Wednesday, a "slight majority of Americans (51 - 48 percent) disapprove of President Biden's plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for millions of Americans in the public and private sectors. Republicans disapprove 84 - 13 percent, independents disapprove 56 - 44 percent, and Democrats approve 89 - 10 percent."

Nearly half of Americans (48 percent) think Biden's vaccine mandate plan to get more Americans vaccinated goes too far, 10 percent think it does not go far enough, and 39 percent think it's about right.

President Biden's new plan, announced last week, states that businesses with 100 or more employees must have employees get vaccinated or be subjected to weekly testing. In addition Biden announced that all federal workers will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The survey found that just shy of half of all Americans, 48 percent, think that Biden's new mandate goes "too far." 39 percent of respondent said that the mandate is just about right, and an additional 10 percent said that the mandate does not go far enough.

During Biden's speech one week ago, he stressed the importance and wanting patience to get unvaccinated people vaccinated.

"We've been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us," he said. And he stressed that the minority of Americans who are unvaccinated "can cause a lot of damage, and they are."

In addition to questions regarding vaccines, the survey found that many of the respondents supported mandating masks in indoor spaces.

57 percent stated that they support requiring the wearing of masks inside. An overwhelming majority also supported requiring masks in schools.

Of those polled, 68 percent said that the recent rise in COVID-19 deaths was preventable.

"'It didn't have to be this bad,' say voters. The nearly three to one margin of Americans who feel the country should have by now turned the corner on COVID underscores deep, lingering concern over the still menacing virus," said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.

Another poll released by Monmouth University on Wednesday found similar results with their respondents.

The poll found that 63 percent of Americans support vaccine mandates for Healthcare workers, compared to 57 percent in the Quinnipiac poll.

58 percent supported vaccine mandates for federal employees, and 55 percent supported mandates for private contractors working for the federal government in the Monmouth poll. The Quinnipiac poll found that 53 percent of Americans support vaccine mandates for federal government employees and contractors.

The Monmouth poll also discovered that a growing majority of Americans support reinstituting mask mandates and social distancing guidelines in their states, with 63 percent saying they support the action. This is compared to just 52 percent in July.

"The current poll shows majorities of residents in both red states and blue states support some type of Covid control measures, and that includes many of the mandates proposed by the president last week," Monmouth University Polling Institute Director Patrick Murray highlighted.