A majority of Americans favor proof of vaccination requirements
for a collection of travel and hospitality activities, including air travel,
hotel stays, dining in restaurants and attendance at large events, according to
Gallup poll conducted Aug. 16-22. Sentiment among poll participants has shifted—particularly
regarding hotel stays and restaurant dining—since Gallup began conducting the survey
in April.
Are Business Events Less Risky?
While Gallup asked about large events in general, research
from event company Freeman in collaboration with computational modeling company
Epistemix found that business events were significantly less risky than social
or cultural events that do not have heightened Covid-19 protocols in place.
According to that study, Covid-19 infection rates at business events were as
much as eight times less than the metro area where the events were held.
These rates are tamped down by the fact that business event
participants reflect a vaccination rate of more than 80 percent, and 90 percent
of attendees are not opposed to additional health and safety protocols—like
testing and proof of vaccination—that enable them to gather safely.
Overall, the August poll showed 61 percent of Americans
favor a vaccine mandate for air travel, representing a 4 percentage point shift
since April when Gallup first conducted this inquiry. Fifty-eight percent agree
that vaccination proof should be shown before attending events with large
crowds—such as sporting, cultural or business events. Like air travel, the
majority (55 percent) already held this opinion in April, before the delta
variant surged in the United States. Support waned very slightly in May, when
just 54 percent said they favored vaccination proof for large events.
Hotel stays and indoor dining saw the biggest sentiment shifts
toward proof of vaccination. In April, just 40 percent of poll participants
said they favored such measures for dining establishments. In August, 53
percent said the same. The shift was slightly less dramatic for hotel stays but
still significant. In April, 44 percent supported proof of vaccination
requirements for hotel visitors but leapt to 53 percent in August.
In August, Gallup introduced the concept of proof of vaccination
to enter an individual's office or worksite. Fifty-six percent of poll
participants were in favor of requirements for work environments.
The Great Divide
Unsurprisingly, attitudes for or against proof of vaccination
for work and social activities aligns with whether the individual answering the
questions has chosen to get vaccinated. Among the vaccinated, 79 percent favor vaccine
proof for air travel, 76 favor it for attendance at large events, 69 percent
favor it for hotel stays and 68 percent say the same for indoor dining. Among those
who are unvaccinated, however, the numbers flip. Twenty-four percent favor vaccine
proof for air travel, 22 for large events, 20 for hotel stays and 21 percent
for indoor dining. A tiny fraction of U.S. cities—New York, San Francisco and West Hollywood—began requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining in August.
According to Our World of Data, just under 53 percent of Americans
are fully vaccinated. That number puts the U.S. sixth among the G7 nations—the seven
wealthiest and largest democracies in the world—for full vaccination.
Vaccination rates in the United States peaked during April with
nearly 2 million jabs delivered daily. Rates remained high in May before sliding
precipitously to 500,000 daily after the July 4 weekend. As the delta variant
surged in mid-summer, however, vaccination rates picked up again. According to White
House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients, speaking during a news conference
on August 31, first jabs administered in late August spiked to 900,000 daily.
President Biden's recent mandate
to vaccinate—or require weekly testing—for workers at businesses with more
than 100 employees attempts to make vaccination the de facto status for working
Americans. Both political opposition and workers unions have mounted immediate
objections to those measures.
According to Gallup, 72 percent of vaccinated Americans
favor proof of vaccination to enter workplace environments, while just 22
percent of unvaccinated Americans would agree.