Just 10 percent of Americans now expect that COVID-19 will be eradicated by this time next year, according to a new poll released Tuesday by Axios-Ipsos.
One in 3 survey takers said they expect to catch COVID-19 within the next month as the results show an American public that is starting to process the concept of living with the coronavirus. The poll does show that Americans are divided on how to live with COVID-19.
Axios reports that there are four fairly evenly split groups on how to go forward with the virus: open up and end all restrictions, open up with precautions, keep precautions and requirements in place, and increase mask and vaccine requirements.
Half of the respondents said they support businesses requiring patrons to prove they are vaccinated in order to enter as a precaution to live with COVID-19.
The divisions on how to handle living with COVID-19 are nestled along party lines, as many other things have been throughout the course of the pandemic, reports Axios.
Though 21 percent of total poll respondents want to “open up and get back to life as usual with no coronavirus mandates or requirements,” that response was given by 43 percent of survey takers who identified as Republicans and by only 3 percent of Democrats, Axios notes.
Additionally, more than half of overall respondents support restaurants and shops requiring vaccination evidence to enter. Along party lines, just a quarter of Republicans said they support that measure, but nearly 3 in 4 Democrats do, according to the polling.
The respondents also said that if the COVID-19 shot becomes something akin to a flu vaccine that requires an annual booster they are likely to get it annually; and of people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted, 85 percent of them said that, if needed and available, they would take an additional booster dose.
The Axios-Ipsos poll was taken Feb. 4-7 and was based on a nationally representative sample of 1,049 members of the general public ages 18 and up. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence interval for the whole sample.