ANALYSIS: Partisan divide shows in frequency of vaccinated Americans going out

Primary tabs

Mon, 2021-06-21 17:16 — mike kraft

Analysis: Vaccinated Republicans are going out far more than vaccinated Democrats There are fewer new cases of Covid-19 in the US in more than a year. The response from an increasing number of Americans has been to resume a lot of normal activities. Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN CNN

(CNN) There are fewer new cases of Covid-19 in the US in more than a year. The response from an increasing number of Americans has been to resume a lot of normal activities.

This is consistent across polling data and real-world activities, such as flying.

This step in the country's return to "normal" seems to have been driven at least in part by vaccinated people being more willing to go out, but there is a real partisan divide. That is, fully vaccinated Republicans seem far more willing to resume normal activities than fully vaccinated Democrats.

Let's take a look at a recent June Axios/Ipsos poll, which has been tracking Americans' habits since the beginning of the pandemic.

Vaccinated people as a whole seem to be venturing out more than they used to. In the latest Ipsos poll, 45% indicated they were social distancing in the last week (i.e. staying home and avoiding others as much as possible). That's down 60% last month.

Unvaccinated Americans saw a decline in social distancing, but it wasn't at the same level as the vaccinated. Back in early May, 47% indicated they were socially distancing. It was 40% in the latest poll.

Zooming in on the vaccinated group in this poll, we see a massive partisan divide. Fully vaccinated Republicans at 31% are far less likely to say they're social distancing than Democrats at 51%. This 20-point (51% - 31%) gap was closer to 30 points a month ago, but it's still very much exists.

When people who have been fully vaccinated are going out, they're also far less likely to use a mask than they used to. In early May, for example, 65% of fully vaccinated adults say they were always wearing a mask when they left their house. Just 46% of the unvaccinated told the pollster that they were always wearing a mask.

By the middle of May, the CDC adjusted its guidance to say vaccinated people did not need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors in most circumstances.

Vaccinated people, as a whole, seemed to hear the message. Earlier this month, just 37% of fully vaccinated adults said they were always wearing a mask when they were outside of their house.

We didn't see the same drop among the unvaccinated over the same period. A nearly equal 36% of this group indicated in June they were always wearing a mask when they were outside of their house.

Still, the partisan gap is very present. Only 20% of fully vaccinated Republicans said they were always wearing a mask when they go out. Among Democrats, it was 48%. The size of this partisan difference (nearly 30 points) is pretty much the same as it was a month ago, even as the percentage of both fully vaccinated Democrats and Republicans always wearing masks dropped. ...

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: