Nearly a third of Republicans say they will never get vaccinated, new poll finds

Americans feel ‘worn out’ by impact of virus in daily lives and changes they have had to make

Workers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and their supporters carry a representation of a syringe during a protest on 1 November outside JPL in Pasadena, California against a US government mandate requiring all federal employees to received the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 30 per cent of Republicans say they may never get a Covid-19 vaccine and only one per cent will get inoculated as soon as possible, according to a new poll by the Monmouth University released on Wednesday.

This was in sharp contrast with Democrats — only two per cent said they were likely to never get the jab.

About 54 per cent Republicans confirmed that they have received the Covid-19 vaccine, while a whopping 96 per cent Democrats said they are already vaccinated, the poll confirmed.

The study titled “National: Most Americans ‘worn out’ by Covid” showed that a large chunk of Americans were exhausted by the impact of the virus in their daily lives and the changes they have had to make in the last 20 months.

And almost half the respondents said they were “angry” about it. While 24 per cent respondents felt “a lot angry” by Covid, 21 per cent felt “a little angry”.

Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing almost equally — 64 per cent of the right-wing camp felt at least a little worn out by pandemic-induced changes in their lives, just one per cent higher than the latter. But the two camps differed strongly on how annoyed the pandemic has made them as 63 per cent of Republicans reported feeling angry, as opposed to 34 per cent of Democrats.

The poll also mapped the ratings of politicians and government officials.

A divided verdict showed that 46 per cent Americans feel US president Joe Biden has done a good job handling the coronavirus crisis, but the same per cent of people also believed Mr Biden has done a bad job.

The poll results showed that the pandemic has dented Mr Biden’s rating, which was previously in a net positive zone .

Only 38 per cent of Democrats now feel that the president has handled the pandemic well, down from 50 per cent in November.  This is higher than a dip in how Republicans view Mr Biden’s positive rating, which is down to 10 per cent from 16 per cent.

The decline in the president’s ratings have been traced back to the states Mr Biden won in the 2020 presidential elections.

Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, explained that the administration’s inability to control the pandemic may be a factor.

“We just came out of an off-year election in Virginia and New Jersey where blue states did not look so blue. The failure to get Covid under control may be playing a role there, especially for independent voters, in a growing sense of frustration with the party in power,” Mr Murray said.

A downward trend is visible in Americans’ wish to back Covid-19 safety protocols. The poll showed that the support for instituting or re-instituting face masks and social distancing rules is back to 55 per cent now, which had increased to 63 per cent in September from 52 per cent recorded in July.

Americans also don’t strongly want to push for showing vaccination proof in places of work or other spaces where they have to meet people as only 46 per cent want such an arrangement. The number was in slight majority in September as 53 per cent of the people wanted this.