COVID-19 Isn't Going Anywhere -- And Americans Know It
The idea that Americans are tired of the pandemic has become conventional wisdom, with important policy implications. Democratic governors in blue states like New Jersey and California have rolled back mask mandates, citing the importance of “normalcy.” But is “normal” what Americans really expect? And what does “normal” even mean, anyway?
A recent Monmouth University poll found that 70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement, “It’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.” This poll got a lot of attention — it was featured in The New York Times, The Hill and other outlets, and was even discussed in a recent episode of FiveThirtyEight’s Politics podcast. It’s not an outlier, either. A Feb. 11-13 poll from Harris found that 71 percent of Americans agreed with the statement, “We will be living with COVID in some form forever.”
At this point, most Americans believe COVID-19 will persist into the near (or distant) future, but what that means to people’s daily lives is the subject of much more dissent. That’s because understanding COVID-19 as an ongoing reality means something different to everyone.
For some, it means going back to pre-pandemic life, without mask mandates, vaccine requirements or other public health measures to contain the spread of the virus. But that’s not what it means to most, according to a Feb. 4-7 Axios/Ipsos poll, in which just 21 percent of Americans said we should “get back to life as usual with no coronavirus mandates or requirements.” To be sure, 29 percent thought we should move toward that goal with some precautions, while 23 percent wanted to mostly keep precautions in place and 21 percent wanted to increase precautions. Part of the reason opinion is so divided is that Americans are simultaneously ready and not-ready to go back to pre-pandemic life. Over three-quarters of Americans said they were “ready to return to normal”, according to a Feb. 12-15 poll from The Economist/YouGov. And yet the Axios/Ipsos poll showed that 54 percent thought doing so posed a large or moderate risk.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/covid-19-isnt-going-anywhere-and-americans-know-it/