COVID vaccine mandates at work? Support grows as delta variant surges, poll finds

More workers support employers implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, according to a new poll.

A Gallup survey found that 36% of workers said they “strongly favor” vaccine mandates in their workplace, while 29% “strongly oppose.” The poll was conducted July 19-26 with a sample of 1,862 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Overall, 52% of respondents are in favor of vaccine mandates, while 38% are opposed and 10% are neutral.

More workers back vaccine mandates compared to June and May surveys. While 36% said they “strongly favor” the mandates in July, 33% said the same in June and 29% in May.

Another survey conducted May 26-June 9 with a sample of 9,915 adults found that 62% of unvaccinated employees said nothing could change their mind to make them get a shot.

Among those who could be swayed, 24% said they could change their mind based on a payroll bonus or cash incentives, 21% said they could be convinced if they were given time off due to vaccination side effects, 18% said they could change their mind if they were given time off to get vaccinated, and 13% said the same for other workplace incentives. Eleven percent said they could be swayed if vaccines were offered on-site, 9% said they could change their mind if they were given information on where to get a shot, and 7% said they could be convinced if informed about the benefits of vaccination.

However, what workers have reported would convince them to get vaccinated and what their employers offer vastly differ. For instance, 48% of respondents said their workplace provided information on where to get vaccinated and 44% said they were given time off to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, 6% said they were given cash incentives or a payroll bonus to get a shot, despite that being the most likely factor to encourage employees to get vaccinated.

The poll comes as COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the country, fueled by vaccine hesitancy and the delta variant, which was discovered in India and is now the dominant strain in the U.S.

COVID-19 cases across the U.S. have risen 47% in the past two weeks, and hospitalizations have increased 56% over that same period as of Aug. 19, according to The New York Times.

“The recent resurgence of COVID-19 infections has forced employers and employees to reexamine worker safety,” Gallup researchers wrote. “After several months when the coronavirus situation was improving, many large employers were planning to have workers return to the work site, if they had not already done so. Now, many employers are delaying those plans, and several major companies have announced that their employees must be vaccinated in order to return to work.”

More than 199 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, accounting for 60% of the population, as of Aug. 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 169 million eligible people are fully vaccinated.

The U.S. has had more than 37 million coronavirus cases and 624,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data as of Aug. 19.

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 8:08 AM with the headline "COVID vaccine mandates at work? Support grows as delta variant surges, poll finds."