60 percent support Biden vaccine mandates: poll

Sixty percent of Americans say they support President Biden’s vaccine mandates, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll released Tuesday.

The survey, conducted Sept. 10-13, found that 60 percent supported the federal government requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while 39 percent oppose the requirement.

Separately, 60 percent supported the vaccination requirement for businesses with at least 100 employees, compared to 39 percent who opposed the mandate.

The results are in line with a Morning Consult-Politico poll released Monday, which found that 58 percent of Americans support the mandate on private businesses and 56 percent support the decision to require most federal workers to get vaccinated.

Biden unveiled the mandates last week as part of his strategy to get more people vaccinated who have not yet received one dose.

He has since faced aggressive pushback from Republicans who say the mandates amount to government overreach. The Republican National Committee and some GOP governors have said they intend to challenge the mandates.

Tuesday’s survey showed that while most Americans support the mandate overall, that support is deeply divided along party lines.

For both requirements, more than 8 in 10 Democrats support the mandates, as do around 60 percent of independents. Only about 30 percent of Republicans, however, support the mandates.

The poll also found incremental increases in how many Americans are subject to COVID-19–related requirements at work or in public.

For instance, 58 percent of employed Americans now say their employer is requiring masks at the office, compared to 51 percent who said as much in mid-August.

Twenty-five percent say their employer put a vaccine mandate in place, up from 19 percent in mid-August. Still, 74 percent of respondents said they had not faced mandates to be vaccinated.

The poll surveyed 1,065 people, and has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.