Biden gets highest marks in new survey for work on pandemic

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say in a new survey that they approve of the job President Biden is doing in terms of handling the coronavirus pandemic, a strong showing of support for the new president as he prepares to address a joint session of Congress this week.

The Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday found that 64 percent of Americans say they at least somewhat approve of the job Biden has done so far in terms of managing the pandemic and vaccine rollout in the U.S. Just 31 percent said they disapproved of his efforts, the remainder had no opinion.

Buoying Biden’s approval ratings on the pandemic are Americans’ views of the recently passed COVID-19 relief package, which was approved without a single GOP senator’s vote and signed into law by the president. Sixty-five percent of respondents approved of the legislation, while 31 percent said they opposed it.

By comparison, a Washington Post/ABC poll taken last July found that 60 percent of Americans surveyed disapproved of the job he was doing managing the pandemic, while 38 percent approved.

Biden sees less support in the new poll for his infrastructure proposal, which the administration is pushing as Biden’s second potential legislative accomplishment. A slight majority of adults — 52 percent —  said they approved of that $2 trillion proposal, while 35 percent were opposed and 12 percent had no opinion.

The Post/ABC poll included responses from 1,007 U.S. adults between April 18-21, and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.