Support for Biden vaccine mandate on large firms slips 3 points: poll

Support for President BidenJoe BidenVideo depicting violence removed from Rep. Gosar’s account after blowback Federal judge rejects Trump effort to block Jan. 6 docs Expected price increases raise political stakes for Biden MORE’s vaccine mandate on businesses with at least 100 employees has slipped 3 points from September, but is still backed by a majority of Americans, according to a new Morning Consult-Politico poll.

The poll, conducted from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7, found that 55 percent of respondents either strongly or somewhat support requiring large firms to mandate vaccinations. This includes 79 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of Republicans.

Conversely, 40 percent of Americans are either strongly or somewhat opposed to the rule, while 5 percent said they either did not know or have no opinion.

When Biden first announced the mandate in September, pollsters found that 58 percent supported Biden’s vaccine requirement on private businesses, including 80 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of Republicans.

The new poll comes after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published the vaccine mandate for businesses, which will go into effect on Jan. 4.

But Republicans have framed the mandate as an attack on civil liberties, and multiple GOP-led states and businesses have sued the administration over the mandate.

On Saturday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the mandate with a nationwide stay.

Fifty-five percent of Americans questioned in the new survey said that the plan to require many U.S. employees to get vaccinated would reduce coronavirus infections in the U.S., while 36 percent said it would not.

In addition, 59 percent said that mandating employees to get vaccinated would increase vaccination rates, while 31 percent said the mandate wouldn’t boost rates.

Respondents seemed to be more divided on whether the mandate would help the economy, with 45 percent saying the requirement would help the requirement grow while 44 percent said it would not. Another 12 percent had no opinion.

The poll surveyed 1,998 registered voters, and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.