Althouse: "Fully 7 in 10 Americans (70%) agree with the sentiment that 'it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives'..."

February 1, 2022

"Fully 7 in 10 Americans (70%) agree with the sentiment that 'it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives'..."

"... including 78% of those who report having gotten Covid and 65% of those who say they have not been infected. The main difference in the sense that it is time to move on is due to partisanship – ranging from 89% of Republicans and 71% of independents to 47% of Democrats.... [M]ore than 1 in 4 (28%) now believe a return to normalcy will never happen, which is up from 22% who felt this way in September and just 6% who were similarly pessimistic exactly a year ago.... [J]ust over half of Americans (52%) support instituting, or reinstituting, face mask and social distancing guidelines in their home state.... Less than half of the public (43%) supports requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to work in an office or other setting where they are around other people. Support for this approach has declined steadily since September (53%), including 46% last month.... Ratings for how both the president and federal health agencies have handled the pandemic continue to slip. Just 43% say Biden has done a good job on this while 53% say he has done a bad job – the first time his rating on this metric has been underwater since he took office."

The Monmouth University poll reports.

53 comments:

Humperdink said...: "89% of Republicans and 71% of independents to 47% of Democrats" agree it's time to move on.

Let me suggest the major reason is the lost (forever) credibility of the Fauci, Rochelle Alensky, the CDC in general, WHO, Covid death stats, and Jen WinnaPsaki and Biden's band of merry men and women.; 2/1/22, 5:58 AM
TreeJoe said...: I consider myself a genuinely data driven decision maker when it comes to this stuff. There is a case for masks, there is a case for vaccines. Those cases have evolved over time, which is why big bold blanket enduring mandates have been stupid.

My kids school is worth calling out on this commentariat because I want people to react to what the lead nurse said in an e-mail.

First off, the school has been open to in-person learning since September 2020 in an environment in which everyone else was fully virtual. They celebrated this and deserve to be celebrated for it.

They then started to take the approach of excess caution in order to remain fully open.

Now, 1.5 years later, the school nurse said in an email that masking, distancing protocols, and cohorting students are things that will remain in place indefinitely much like how the TSA's restricted security measures have remained in place twenty years after 9/11

I haven't been angry or fed up with the schools measures to date. Sure they haven't always been right, but they've genuinely tried to strike a balance and follow federal or local requirements.

Now they have decided to:

1. Choose more restrictive options themselves.
2. Not base the decisions on data but instead of personal feelings
3. Refuse to set clear, data driven goalposts for loosening those restrictions
4. Announce that such restrictions may be in place indefinitely and we should set expectations accordingly.

This is a private school. Guess I hit my limit. I'm about to erupt at them with calm, calculated comments reflecting I'll work hard to get people removed from their positions.; 2/1/22, 6:00 AM
Kai Akker said...: --- ranging from 89% of Republicans and 71% of independents to 47% of Democrats..

IQ distribution.; 2/1/22, 6:03 AM
Mr. Forward said...: I'm still waiting for my free mask from the government. Does it come with the FJB logo or do I have to add that?; 2/1/22, 6:08 AM
tim in vermont said...: Dreamy McDreamboat, Justin Trudeau says that 70% is a "fringe minority," and if demonstrators from a thousand miles away seek food in a soup kitchen, they are "stealing" that food from the mouths of the homeless, and all you need to do is send a guy with a Confederate flag and a photographer in tow, a guy who seems to have no friends, only hecklers, and you can prove that the 70% are a racist fringe.

Let's not even talk about the sudden concern for monuments and sacred symbols of 'national unity.' It's like they are not even trying. They think we are like ducks who can't remember what happened yesterday.; 2/1/22, 6:13 AM
gilbar said...: Less than half of the public (43%) supports requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to work in an office or other setting where they are around other people.

i'm assuming, that those were ALL democrats?; 2/1/22, 6:13 AM
Temujin said...: We've been months ahead of the curve on this here in FL. And by 'we' I mean most of us, but not all. There are still a few individuals who look like they just got here from New York, fear in there eyes, muttering to themselves as they watch Floridians go about their day smiling and just carrying on.

What is incredible to me are the breakdowns of the stats between Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. How terrified and hooked into CNN/MSNBC/NBC/ABC/CBS/NYT info are the Democrats? The numbers tell you. If left to themselves to look at all of the data, including the evidence of their own senses, they'd arrive at a different percentage. But they are Party First, actual data (science) + reality last. They seem almost addicted to government and will accept any edict coming from a Democratic administration. Interestingly, when it's a Republican administration, they become allergic to government edicts.

It's never been about 'the science'. It has always been about The Party.; 2/1/22, 6:52 AM
tim maguire said...: It takes a great crisis to institute lockdowns but, once instituted, it takes far less to maintain them. If COVID showed up today instead of 2 years ago, but in every other respect things today were exactly as they are, we would not make any significant changes. We would not lockdown, or mask or distance or anything else. But we had masks and distancing and lockdowns yesterday, so we have them today.

It will end when the people demand it end. Which is coming, pandemic, endemic, whatever. Each surge brings more cases but fewer hospitalizations and deaths and it's completely reasonable to say we've done enough. It's time to put away our fears and live our lives normally.; 2/1/22, 7:11 AM
Black Dog said...: Johns Hopkins released a study at https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf. Interesting stuff. Key takeaway: "While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument." So time to name names and shun all the bureaucrats who played a role in wrecking things.; 2/1/22, 7:11 AM
Harsh Pencil said...: Blogger Kai Akker said...
--- ranging from 89% of Republicans and 71% of independents to 47% of Democrats..

IQ distribution.

I disagree. It's a risk aversion distribution. A lot of politics is a tradeoff between security and freedom. People become democrats because they value security over freedom. Survey data from before the pandemic has public school teachers as among the most insanely risk averse. Makes sense because if you are insanely averse, being a public school teacher is an attractive career: not much upside, but very protected against downside risk.; 2/1/22, 7:21 AM
Michael said...: The people are leading.....this pandemic is over; 2/1/22, 7:23 AM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: Curious, the use of "Fully" as a intro word to their meat paragraph. They are reporting "news," i.e., the results of their absolutely impartial, statistically validated poll. They could accurately state, "7 in 10 Americans..." but they add a padding word in. Is that the tell that they are surprised by the result or disappointed, or are they paid by the word?; 2/1/22, 7:24 AM
hawkeyedjb said...: A question for the Democrats in this poll: How many restrictions do you want for other people, but not for yourself? If you ask Democratic politicians, the answers will be pretty close to 100% for others, zero% for yourself. I base this on the actual behavior of Democratic politicians.; 2/1/22, 7:27 AM
Lance said...: At first I thought the 52 percent for more masks and distancing contradicted the 70 percent in favor of "getting on with life", but then I realized that a big chunk of the "getting on" respondents must think that state-imposed masking and distancing is now normal and an acceptable part of life. If true I find that rather scary.; 2/1/22, 7:47 AM
Wince said...: The good thing about the name "Covid-19" is the date marker within.

It's starting to get old... Like Expo 67.; 2/1/22, 7:51 AM
tim in vermont said...: Oh, the lockdowns had effects, they pushed the burden onto the working class and off of the woking class at a time when the only treatment seemed to be ventilators, and there were no vaccines, so that these workers could lose so many of their older loved ones.; 2/1/22, 7:53 AM
Original Mike said...: Rationality is going to take a change in administration. The dems are fully invested in pandemic-mania.; 2/1/22, 7:54 AM
Bob Boyd said...: For Progs instituting restrictions and mandates is just getting on with their lives.; 2/1/22, 8:04 AM
tim in vermont said...: Democrats rule by creating a boogeyman of the "white male" and promise to protect their voters from him. The pandemic is simply the latest avatar of this strategy. Gun control is another, branding anybody who disagrees with them as nazis is another... The idea is the demonize to create the fear, and then reap the benefits in votes. Except this time they may have gone too far, they may have fallen to hubris, but I am not certain that that will be the outcome.; 2/1/22, 8:06 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “ --- ranging from 89% of Republicans and 71% of independents to 47% of Democrats..”

“IQ distribution.”

Yet, you would expect the Democrats, with their higher percentage of college educated, to have the higher IQ. Something seems a bit off there. The more the evidence comes out that the vaccines don’t work, but are dangerous, the more that it becomes obvious that face diapers are worthless in preventing the spread of the virus, the more the Dems dig in.

My theory is that these college educated Dems know that they aren’t smart enough to read the literature and analyze it for themselves, and that if they were to actually listen to Dr Malone, they would be quickly lost. The ones with BA degrees defer to and trust those with MS degrees, and those defer and trust those with MD and PhD degrees. Except that they really can’t hear what a lot of the MDs/PhDs are saying, because it is being heavily suppressed. They hear that the strong consensus is that vaccines and masks are good, and don’t realize that the concerted effort to brand alternative views as misinformation is propaganda aimed directly at them.

I think too, that it is partly a function of the educated upper middle class striving to emulate their betters, and thus rise to their level. This has long been the case. Their betters are telling them to get vaccinated and wear stupid masks, so they do. Working class is much less trusting of the upper classes and the government, so don’t buy into the propaganda nearly as much.; 2/1/22, 8:12 AM
Achilles said...: Just a reminder.

This poll is bullshit.

It is a tool to tell you how to think, not what people actually think.

People engaging with this are engaging with obvious propaganda and playing along with it is really not smart.; 2/1/22, 8:12 AM
Original Mike said...: "It's a risk aversion distribution. A lot of politics is a tradeoff between security and freedom. People become democrats because they value security over freedom."

To wit: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s just unveiled Master Plan to pursue a target of “zero deaths” on America’s roadways. A key component of his plan is to blanket those roadways with speed cameras –; 2/1/22, 8:13 AM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: I guess they pretend Rogan is the kind of misinformation that got Trump elected, spreads evil, and kills children; what they really believe is that it's not time to get back to normal.; 2/1/22, 8:15 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “A question for the Democrats in this poll: How many restrictions do you want for other people, but not for yourself? If you ask Democratic politicians, the answers will be pretty close to 100% for others, zero% for yourself. I base this on the actual behavior of Democratic politicians.”

There has long been a double standard here. This is part of what I was talking about above - the upper middle class mimicking what they are supposed to see their betters doing, and not the reality. Our country’s (and those of many other counties too) elites very often do not practice what they preach. Never have. It’s why supposedly woke news anchors can get away with being sexual predators. Or, for that matter, Dem politicians. I am reminded of champions of women, Sens Teddy Kennedy and Chris Dodd and their waitress sandwiches in Georgetown. Heck, even serial sexual assault ER and apparent lover of underaged pulchritude, Bill Clinton, being portrayed as a champion of women.; 2/1/22, 8:28 AM
Achilles said...: The same people that put out this poll are also ignoring this story:

Ivermectin found to be effective against Omicron and other COVID-19 variants.

This was a large scale Japanese study. Ivermectin was very effective.

Japan and other countries had excellent results using Ivermectin. Now the studies are published because that takes time.

The people who blocked Ivermectin and called it horse dewormer killed thousands of people.

They knew it worked too.; 2/1/22, 8:28 AM
Gahrie said...: They won't even tell me what needs to happen before we can go back to no masks.; 2/1/22, 8:30 AM
Humperdink said...: It appears from the photos over the weekend that CA Governor Ozzie Newsome has moved on.; 2/1/22, 8:33 AM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: I've said before that strident opposition to vax mandates is a political mistake. It just plays out badly.

So what's a better strategy?

It helps to refer to the vaccines as "the Trump vaccines," and see how that shifts the tone of the debate, and notice how it constantly undermines Dem self-righteousness. "Dems are going too far by forcing the Trump vaccines on everyone," is better than saying only that "Dems are going too far forcing the vaccines on everyone." You also get to say things like "Biden started his presidency with the Trump vaccines as a weapon, and yet more people died under Biden than under Trump who did not have the advantage of the Trump vaccine."; 2/1/22, 8:43 AM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: @Achilles

Do you have an article about Ivermectin that isn't in Japanese?; 2/1/22, 8:56 AM
tim in vermont said...: I went to your link, Achilles, it looks like a proposal for a study to be done, rather than the published results of one. I am very interested in reading the results directly.; 2/1/22, 9:23 AM
ColoComment said...: Humperdink said...
...
Let me suggest the major reason is the lost (forever) credibility of the Fauci, Rochelle Alensky, the CDC in general, WHO, Covid death stats, and Jen WinnaPsaki and Biden's band of merry men and women.
2/1/22, 5:58 AM
Really, is there any primary department or agency of our fed government that has retained any level of respect and/or deference? Defense? State? Ed? HHS? DOJ? Energy? DHS? Labor? Trans?
...maybe the VA?; 2/1/22, 9:30 AM
ColoComment said...: Humperdink said...
...
Let me suggest the major reason is the lost (forever) credibility of the Fauci, Rochelle Alensky, the CDC in general, WHO, Covid death stats, and Jen WinnaPsaki and Biden's band of merry men and women.
2/1/22, 5:58 AM
Really, is there any primary department or agency of our fed government that has retained any level of respect and/or deference? Defense? State? Ed? HHS? DOJ? Energy? DHS? Labor? Trans?
...maybe the VA?; 2/1/22, 9:30 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: 7 in 10 Americans is not enough immunization from the pandemic of the unvaccinated... or something.; 2/1/22, 9:34 AM
Original Mike said...: "They won't even tell me what needs to happen before we can go back to no masks.

Party of Science.; 2/1/22, 9:35 AM
jaydub said...: "We've been months ahead of the curve on this here in FL. And by 'we' I mean most of us, but not all. There are still a few individuals who look like they just got here from New York, fear in there eyes, muttering to themselves as they watch Floridians go about their day smiling and just carrying on."

A good percentage of those people who look like they just got here from New York are snowbirds who did actually just get here in The Villages. It's the same with snowbirds from Canada, New England and the upper Midwest: they are the ones wearing masks while riding around in golf carts, stepping off the sidewalks to prevent passing someone coming in the other direction, giving the stink-eye to anyone not in a mask in shops and restaurants, etc. They'll be gone by the end of May and things will get back to normal around here until the next winter migration. I mostly ignore them or laugh at them because Florida is never going to accept that BS again.; 2/1/22, 9:38 AM
Critter said...: Democrats have been brainwashed on the effectiveness of masks and the vaccines. Take them out of the polling stats and we have near consensus that it's time to move on. It's time to recognize Democrats for who they are - bitter clingers who.won the 2020 election due to COVID expansion of mail-in voting and ballot stuffing and are reluctant to give up a winning approach.

It has never made any sense to restrict people out of concern that they will infect the vaccinated unless the people are in the relatively short period around testing positive. Physical separation of the uninfected was a short-term strategy that has not stopped the spread and will not help us get to herd immunity.

Time to move on. For those who are at risk from COVID complications, it's time for those people to take care of themselves and stop imposing on the majority of Americans.; 2/1/22, 10:03 AM
Achilles said...: Gerda Sprinchorn said...

@Achilles

Do you have an article about Ivermectin that isn't in Japanese?

The right column.

Or you can click here for full scrib'd version.; 2/1/22, 10:06 AM
rcocean said...: Are Democrats naturally stupid and unpatriotic or do they learn it from the MSM? These characters are termites destroying the country. Every bad idea is supported by them. And their venomous hatred of Republicans makes them impossible to live with.

The USA is venturing into the same territory as Spain 1936. ONly there's absolutely no Franco.; 2/1/22, 10:14 AM
Achilles said...: tim in vermont said...

I went to your link, Achilles, it looks like a proposal for a study to be done, rather than the published results of one. I am very interested in reading the results directly.

It is a proposal. The company, Kowa, Released a statement about the findings. The full study will be released on March 31 I assume after some peer review.

But we already know that Japan had great success using Ivermectin to treat COVID.

It worked far better than the vaccines and it did not create a Myocarditis/Pericarditis epidemic.

You and the other Branch Covidians have been attacking us with far less evidence Tim.; 2/1/22, 10:15 AM
Big Mike said...: Really, is there any primary department or agency of our fed government that has retained any level of respect and/or deference? Defense? State? Ed? HHS? DOJ? Energy? DHS? Labor? Trans?
...maybe the VA?

Definitely not the VA. Ask yourself what sort of healthcare professionals would go to work at an agency where they cannot be sued for malpractice.

During the course of my career I worked for nearly every agency in DC, and my nominee for agency most deserving of respect would be Social Security. Interestingly enough, SSA is headquartered in Baltimore, not DC. Coincidence? Or correlation?; 2/1/22, 10:25 AM
Joe Smith said...: I was saying this a week into it.

It's the feminization of America that led to this entire mess.

People are pussies on a galactic scale these days.

Take care of the old and the sick, everyone else will survive.

Same as it ever was...; 2/1/22, 10:45 AM
Yancey Ward said...: The Democrats can not let up on the COVID theater until after this Fall's midterm elections- they need mass mail-in-voting in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina in order to gain enough control of the Senate to pass the SCOTUS court packing bill and the Green New Deal porkulus legislation.

Until then, expect the beatings to continue.; 2/1/22, 11:27 AM
Readering said...: Apparently this move on sentiment prevailed with Spanish flu, and contributed to a lot of deaths in 1920, by which time the flu no longer a news story.; 2/1/22, 11:33 AM
tim in vermont said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/1/22, 11:33 AM
Readering said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/1/22, 11:33 AM
tim in vermont said...: "You and the other Branch Covidians have been attacking us with far less evidence Tim."

LOL. Sorry I read your link and made an honest attempt to understand it instead of just taking your word for it like I should have. I spent a lot of time puzzling through that half Japanese half English doc to see if there was something I was missing. I have an open mind on Ivermectin.; 2/1/22, 11:33 AM
320Busdriver said...: The whiplash we are about to witness will be unprecedented. President Brandon and his pied pipers, like Peppermint Patti, are about to engage in operation gaslight gazillion. We are about to learn that, actually, this administration has singlehandedly tamed the WuFlu and we can now all go back to normal.

As a tax paying citizen I am so grateful for the level of serious sciency and perfect ruling overness that was even better than any other perfect phone call ever before attempted. I just never thought this old man and his merry band of statists could pull off such an epic turnaround and unite this fractured country.

Just make sure to vaccinate your children…they’re our only hope!; 2/1/22, 1:12 PM
iowan2 said...: We are about 12 months late in reaching this conclusion.

Iowa has been open longer than that, we are no worse the wear.; 2/1/22, 2:53 PM
Jim at said...: Some of us came to this conclusion in April of 2020.; 2/1/22, 3:11 PM
Hey Skipper said...: Here are some excerpts from the NYT's news digest of a couple days ago.

According to surveys, there is a huge partisan gap in attitudes towards Mao Tse Lung. In the face of Omicron, thirty percent of Democrats intend to continue life as normally as possible; Republicans, 65%.

Many Democrats say that they feel unsafe in their communities; are worried about getting sick from Covid; and believe the virus poses a significant risk to their children, parents and friends. Republicans are less worried about each of these issues.

Who’s right? There is no one answer to that question, because different people have different attitudes toward risk. An acceptable risk to one person (driving in a snowstorm, say, or swimming in the ocean) may be unacceptable to another. Neither is necessarily wrong.

This misses the fundamental divide. Democrats overwhelmingly believe the risk is mitigable. The virus can be controlled. A highly infectious respiratory virus can be controlled.

This is nonsense on stilts, a belief for which there is precisely zero evidence. Masks don't work. Mandates are ineffective. Both have caused serious harm.

The evidence is here:. (NYT, not behind a paywall, reasonably thorough, and not to many crimes against the statistical arts.)

Scroll down to the big US map, where there are a half-dozen depictions of MTL stats down to the county level. If masks or mandates had any favorable impact, then the areas where they were the most stringent would look different than areas where they were most relaxed, or even absent. Idaho hasn't had any restrictions in nearly a year; Oregon, right next door is completely the opposite. Why is it, in every regard, they look so much the same?

Yes, there are differences, but they are all regional, uncorrelated with policies.

Scroll a bit further down, to State Trends, All Time, Deaths/100,000. Hi-mandate states are mixed in with low; low-vax mixed with high. The distribution is as random as one could ever hope for.

Why are progressives so immune to the glaringly obvious?; 2/1/22, 3:12 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger Readering said...

Apparently this move on sentiment prevailed with Spanish flu, and contributed to a lot of deaths in 1920, by which time the flu no longer a news story.

Posted by someone who has no idea of why so many Spanish flu cases died. Medical knowledge of lung function was primitive. Many cases developed empyema and doctors did not know how to treat it. Hippocrates knew that if the pus was thick and creamy, it was safe to open the chest to drain it. The lung would not collapse. If the pus was thin and bloody, like all the flu cases in 1919, the lung would collapse and the patient would die. In 1920, a group of ex-Army doctors did research as the The Empyema Commission. They acknowledged that there was little could be done about viral pneumonia. There were no respirators at the time and not for another 30 years. Bacterial empyema was treatable if only they understood how the lung worked. They did not until after the Commission report.; 2/1/22, 4:40 PM
effinayright said...: Yet, you would expect the Democrats, with their higher percentage of college educated, to have the higher IQ.
****************

I always laugh out loud at that bullshit. It completely conflates "education" with IQ. Yet I have yet to see anyone produce "statistics" that measure the IQs of **all** those who vote Democrat.

Go on, tell us all those tens of millions of urban Democrat voters who depend on welfare are smarter, even though they have little or no education.

then explain why Charlie Murray's analysis of black IQ thirty years ago was met by charges of racism, AND by the claim that there is no such thing as IQ.

It's intellectual flakiness, flakiness all the way down.

But very convenient to exhume as a rhetorical device.; 2/1/22, 7:31 PM
effinayright said...: p.s. to my previous post: If Democrats are so smart, why do they fuck EVERYTHING up?; 2/1/22, 7:32 PM