No vaccination? Americans back tough rules and mask mandates to protect the common good – USA TODAY
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As a fourth wave of the coronavirus surges, Americans by a wide margin say protecting the common good is more important than ensuring personal liberty when considering whether to require people to get a COVID-19 vaccination or wear a protective mask.
An overwhelming 72%-28% of those surveyed by USA TODAY and Ipsos called mask mandates "a matter of health and safety," not an infringement on personal liberty. By 61%-39%, they endorsed requiring vaccinationsexcept for those with a medical or religious exemption.
"I think everybody should be able to make their own decision as long as they're not hurting someone else," said Donna Sharp, 54, of Wynne, Arkansas, a caregiver who was among those called in the poll. "But in the case of this, with the vaccine, in a way you are hurting other people if you don't get it and you spread it."
That view isn't universal, though.Nearly 1 in 5 said they hadn't gotten a COVID-19 shot and don't plan to anytime soon underscoring the complicated terrain ahead as the number of cases diagnosedand deaths recorded rise, especially in communities with low vaccination rates.
"I think the mandates and requirements are against our rights as being U.S. citizens," said Carlie Wright, 30, a stay-at-home mother of two sons from Logan, Utah, who has declined to get a vaccine or wear a mask."We shouldn't have government to control our lives and tell us what they can and can't do."
By more than 2-1, 70%-30%, Americans agreed that people havethe right to choose not to get the vaccinebut that they then don't have the right to be around the vaccinated. There was significant support for businesses, employers, colleges, restaurants, airlines and others to bar those who hadn't gotten the shot.
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That debate is reverberating across the country as school districts prepare to reopen in the next few weeks and businesses begin to bring backemployees who havebeen working remotely during the pandemic. The Biden administration last week threatened to cut off federalfunding to nursing homes that didn't require staffers to be vaccinated.InTexas and Florida, some school districts confronted governors over whether they could require masks.
The poll found broad backingfor tough steps against those who were eligible to get the vaccine but declined:
"It's a very fine line, but there comes a certain point a person's liberties end," said Michael Tricarico, 50, a transit system worker from Brooklyn. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
The fallout has affected his own workplace.This month, outgoing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered that the state's MTA and Port Authority workers must get vaccinated by Labor Day or face weekly coronavirus testing.
Among those surveyed, some steps were seen as going too far; 62% opposed firing the unvaccinated from their jobs. But a majority also rejected the idea that nothing should happen to them as a result of their decision.
For most, the practical trumped the philosophical on a question of public health.By 75%-25%, they saidgetting the vaccine was less about protecting the individual and more about stopping the spread of COVID-19.
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The USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll, taken online of 1,088 adults Aug. 17-18, has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
"I initially didn't want to get it, because you never know the long-lasting side effects," said Aleeah Baker, 18, a restaurant worker from Beaumont, Texas. But sheand others in her family got the vaccine because of concern for her niece, who lives in the same household and is too young to be vaccinated. "It's a little bit of extra security for me and my family."
Three-fourths of those surveyedreported getting at least one dose of avaccine. That group included 86% of Democrats, 73% of independents and 66% of Republicans.
Thepartisan differences sharpened over where the balance should be between the common good and personal liberty when it comes to the vaccine. Democrats by 78%-22% said protecting the common good was more important.Republicans by 62%-38% said protecting personal liberty was more important.
That perspective was particularly powerful among those who hadn't gotten the shot and had no plans to get one in the next few months. By 78%-22%, they said protecting personal liberty was more important.
David Lintz, 41, a property manager from Lubbock, Texas, hasn't been vaccinated and questioned whether it was necessary.
"If it came to point where the virus was so bad, if it was something more severe other than people having the sniffles or the flu, and I thought I could save my family by doing it, I would get it," he said in a follow-up interview. "Otherwise, there's really no point to get it."
In fact, the highly contagious delta variant has fueled an increase in COVID-19 rates in all 50 states. Texas is now reporting more than 100 COVID-19 deaths a day,and dozens of Texas hospitals have no available bedsin their intensive care units. Ninety-three percent to 98% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated, state officials say.
Nationwide, cases and hospitalizations are rising among children, who aren't eligible for the vaccine until age 12. Parents and school officials are fighting over back-to-school safety measures, and thousands of kids in public school districts are under quarantine after being exposed to the virus.
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Addressing the pandemic is colored by a political overtone that otherrules and regulations to protect the common good arenot.
"Broadly speaking, Americans are in favor of mandates to further the public good," said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos."Yet in our deeply divided society, where COVIDhas become increasingly politicized, partisanship overrides such sense of collective community."
Requirements to wear a maskand get a vaccine ranked almost at the bottom of a list of20 measures designed to protect the public by setting building standards, licensing trade professionals, imposing speed limits and taking other steps.
Mosthad overwhelming and bipartisan support.At least 8 in 10 of those surveyed endorsed mandates for security screenings at airports, seat-beltusein carsand vaccinations for children against diseases such as measles and diphtheria before being allowed to attend school.
The majority supporton COVID-19 mandates was smaller but still significant. About two-thirds supported employer requirements that workers to be vaccinated and state and local mandates to wear masks. But fewer than half of Republicans endorsed those steps, one of the few policies on protecting the common goodthat showed a partisan divide.
"If your personal decisions have an effect on public safety, then that's the whole purpose of government, public health is to protect the rights of the many,"said Sanjay Krishnan, 44, a doctor in Manchester, New Hampshire, who was called in the poll. He has seen the jarring contrast between vaccine reluctance in the United States and the desperate search for vaccines in India, where he has relatives.
He has a response to Americans who say they have a personal right to refuse to get the vaccine. "I would argue, what about my personal freedom to be able to go out in public and go to places and to be safe from infectious disease?"
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No vaccination? Americans back tough rules and mask mandates to protect the common good - USA TODAY
