Reuters/Ipsos Poll finds Americans support flexible approach to masking
Washington, DC, April 22, 2022 - A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds only a quarter of Americans are very concerned about COVID-19, and 30% of Americans say the pandemic is over. Republicans (43%) are much more likely to believe the COVID-19 pandemic is over than Democrats (18%).
More than half of Americans (56%) say that COVID-19 is a very real threat to our society, and 44% say we need to get on with our lives. Sixty-five percent of Americans support mask requirements on planes and public transport, including 81% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans believe that cities and states should impose mask mandates if COVID cases are climbing in their area. However, 63% of Americans say that the decision to mask or vaccinate should be left up to individuals, not the government at this point in the pandemic. This includes a majority of Democrats (53%) and three-quarters of Republicans (78%).
On voting in the November election, 57% of Republicans say they are more likely to vote for a political candidate who has talked about how elites are exaggerating the danger of the pandemic while 79% of Democrats say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports continuing rules like mask requirements to combat the pandemic. Three-quarters of Democrats (72%) and 66% of Republicans say they are more likely to support a candidate who has changed their position on COVID rules based on their understanding of current risks and conditions. Finally, 44% of Americans say that President Joe Biden had delivered on his campaign promise to try and control the pandemic.
About the Study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between April 21 and April 22, 2022 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,005 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii was interviewed online in English. The sample includes 429 Democrats, 383 Republicans, and 126 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 5.6 percentage points for Democrats, ± 6.1 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.7 percentage points for independents.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
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Annaleise Lohr
Director, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]
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