Confidence in Biden COVID Response Falls in Latest Poll

Overall confidence in President Joe Biden’s ability to lead the country in an economic recovery during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has fallen since he took office last January, according to the latest survey from Axios and Ipsos.

When asked if they felt "somewhat" or "very" confident in Biden:

• 44% of all voters said yes in October.
• 52% said the same last January.
• 71% of Democrats said yes in October.
• 86% said the same last January.
• 18% of Republicans said yes.
• 17% said the same last January.
• 42% of independents said yes in October.
• 51% said the same last January.

Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs, said Biden "focused on the wrong problem" in his messaging by focusing on pushing the unvaccinated to receive the vaccine.

"The problem is not the unvaccinated. The problem is convincing those who are vaccinated that they have the tools to navigate a COVID world ... [and reassuring] those who’ve been vaccinated that they can live a normal life again."

He added, "People are confused. There's no sense of what the endgame is."

The poll also found that:

• 76% of Americans are confident that the Biden administration will ensure the vaccine is more widely available, up from 62% in January.
• 70% are confident that the vaccines will be distributed quickly, up from 57% in January.
• 64% expressed confidence in the administration’s ability to distribute vaccinations among children ages 5-11.

Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson added that many Americans remain confused about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, with only two-thirds aware that the vaccine is effective at preventing serious illness in those who do contract the virus, and four-in-10 don’t believe or don’t know that the unvaccinated are at least 10 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who are vaccinated.

"There's this huge mushiness about who's protected, how much they're protected," he said. "Democrats have always been more worried about the pandemic" compared to Republicans, which means that "they still don't necessarily think they're safe."

Axios and Ipsos polled 1,038 people across the country from Oct. 21-25, 2021, with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.

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