Confidence in Biden’s ability to rescue economy from pandemic slips: poll

Americans’ confidence in President Biden’s ability to ensure a post-pandemic economic recovery has fallen, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

The Axios-Ipsos poll found that 44 percent of respondents said they are confident that the Biden administration can ensure a quick economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, the same poll found that 52 percent said they had confidence in the administration’s abilities, a drop of 8 percentage points in the past nine months.

Broken down by political parties, confidence in the Biden administration fell by 15 percent among Democrats and 9 percent among independents. Republican confidence in the Biden administration stayed relatively the same, actually rising by 1 percentage point to 18 percent.

The same poll also found that less than half — 45 percent — trust in Biden to provide accurate information about the COVID-19 pandemic, a 13 percent drop from when he assumed office in January. Only 21 percent of survey participants said they believed the administration could convince vaccine skeptics to get immunized against the coronavirus.

President of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs Cliff Young told Axios that Biden’s messaging is “focused on the wrong problem” when it comes to a confidence-building perspective.

“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,” said Young.

However, confidence in the administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has risen, with 76 percent confident in its ability to make the vaccine widely available, up by 12 percent since January. Seventy percent said they were confident in the administration being able to quickly distribute vaccines, up from 57 percent in January.

The Axios-Ipsos poll was conducted Oct. 22-25 and included 1,038 U.S. adults. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.