#33: Harsh Poll Results from Likely Voters in the U.S. (on COVID and the Unvaccinated)
Harsh results from a recent Rasmussen Reports survey...
Hello All,
Yowza - I wish I had something more chipper to start the work week. But these results are more than a little eye-opening and reflective of the divisive messaging and policies of our leaders.
A recent Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports survey (phone and online - conducted on January 5th, 2022) of 1,016 U.S. Likely Voters had some startlingly harsh results, particularly from Democratic voters, regarding unvaccinated Americans.
Check out these highlights, summarizing the results from the story linked above from Rasmussen:
55% of Democratic voters would support a proposal for governments to fine Americans who choose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine (vs. 19% of Republicans and 25% of unaffiliated voters).
59% of Democratic voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies, if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine (vs. 79% of Republicans and 71% of unaffiliated voters who would OPPOSE such a policy).
48% of Democratic voters think federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.
45% of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine (vs. 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters who would STRONGLY OPPOSE such measures).
This is essentially a question on COVID camps - scary that 99%+ of all voting groups don’t reject this outright!
47% of Democrats favor a government tracking program for those who won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine.
29% of Democratic voters would support temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine (vs. 7% of Republicans and 11% of unaffiliated voters who would support this).
Even in my most cynical moments, I would not have predicted responses like this. Awful. Temporarily removing custody of children over a COVID vaccine choice!!?
These are the types of results you get after a year of stigmatizing the unvaccinated, politicizing health choices and playing the blame game. Nasty policies lead to nasty opinions.
Again, we’ve looked at data that show that COVID-19 vaccines don’t prevent transmission. The CDC Director herself admitted this in AUGUST 2021 below.
So since last summer, even the CDC admits that vaccines don’t stop transmission. In other words, you can catch COVID from both the unvaccinated and the vaccinated. And this was before Omicron, which even further muddied the waters to the point of possible negative efficacy of the vaccines (meaning one might be MORE likely to be infected with Omicron if vaccinated).
And yet despite all this - close to half of voters likely to vote Democratic are willing to fine the unvaccinated, confine them to their homes, imprison those who question the COVID-19 vaccines, require the unvaccinated to “temporarily relocate” to designated facilities, subject them to government tracking programs… and worst of all, 29% would favor temporarily removing custody of children for the unvaccinated. Some Republican and unaffiliated voters responded with approval to these policies, as well, in lesser numbers. Lots of people out there looking to punish others for COVID-19, especially the unvaccinated - and all despite the data, which tells us the vaccines don’t stop transmission. Not only are these policies wrong, they would do nothing to stop the spread of COVID.
As I said, nasty data. These kind of results should make everyone pause and consider just how much the constant “othering” of the unvaccinated has influenced the thinking of Americans toward their fellow countrymen.
On the bright side (if you can call it that)… this was just a survey of a little more than one thousand people. And for all the respondents who supported brutal punishments of the unvaccinated, there were many on both sides who did not.
We should all surround ourselves with people who choose compassion over politics and bad public health messaging. We’re going to need each other when all this nonsense comes to an end. How nice would it be to get back to being fellow Americans again? Hopefully soon.
More to come! Thanks for reading.
-G