Poll: America Divided on How to Live With COVID-19

A new poll released Tuesday by Axios-Ipsos shows that Americans are coming to terms with living with COVID-19. They’re just divided on how.

With 1 in 3 of those surveyed expecting to catch the virus within the next month, Axios reports that there are four schools of thought on how to move forward.

Of those surveyed, 29% said the U.S. should move toward opening up, with precautions; while 23% said the country should mostly keep precautions and requirements in place. At opposite ends of the spectrum, 21% said that the country should increase mask mandates and vaccine requirements, while another 21% said it should open up and get back to life as usual, with no mandates or requirements.

"There's nothing approaching a consensus on what we should be doing to move forward, which underlines the difficulty for policymakers," Ipsos pollster and Senior Vice President Chris Jackson said.

As with many other things throughout the pandemic, Axios reports that the divisions about how to handle COVID-19 have appeared along political party lines.

Of the 51% of overall respondents who want businesses to require proof of vaccination to enter, 25% identified as Republicans and 72% as Democrats.

Only 1 of the 4 pathways forward — the move toward opening while continuing some precautions — has comparable support across party lines, at 29% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats. Even then, it's less than 1 in 3.

Just 10% of Americans now expect that COVID-19 will be eradicated by this time next year, according to the poll.

If the COVID-19 vaccine requires an annual booster, similar to the flu shot, 70% of respondents said they’d likely take it.

Of the people who have been fully vaccinated and had a booster shot, 85% said they’d take a fourth shot if it were available.

Conducted Feb. 4-7, the Axios-Ipsos poll was based on a nationally representative sample of 1,049 general population adults age 18 and older. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level for the whole sample.

• Poland Puts off Mandatory Jabs for Teachers, Police, Army
• California to End Mask Mandate for Vaccinated Next Week