While many Americans agree that the mass availability of the COVID-19 vaccine will help to bring cases down and save lives, most Americans also believe that it should be a personal choice to be vaccinated, as opposed to a forced decision that is mandated by governments, employers, or businesses.
So says a poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group in conjunction with the Convention of States Action when sampling over 1,000 respondents.
The survey polled 1,077 likely General Election voters and found that a whopping 71.4% of Americans said that it should be a personal choice and only 21.8% supported a vaccine mandate.
The results did vary slightly by partisan affiliation, but both sides had majorities in support of personal choice: 58.7% of Democrats and 87.3% of Republicans were in favor of personal choice for the COVID vaccine over a mandate, while 67.2% of independents or third party supporters agreed.
Mark Meckler, President of Convention of States Action, said in a statement, “These numbers reveal that hundreds of millions of social media messages, a constant stream of propaganda from the press, paid TV and radio ad campaigns coast-to-coast, daily hammering from Biden Administration officials, and cajoling from influencers and celebrities on every possible communication platform are having one profound effect on the public. It’s all backfiring. Americans have never taken kindly to being told what to do, and they are not going to start now. After being told ‘my body, my choice’ for nearly five decades by the same crowd now hypocritically pushing mandates, is it any wonder the public isn’t on board?”
Convention of States Action (COSA) is a grassroots political organization with over 5 million supporters across the United States. The organizations primary focus is on calling an Article V Convention of the States to propose amendments to the US Constitution. COSA only promotes amendments which would impose limitations on the size and scope of the federal government.
The Trafalgar Group is a public polling and market research firm. Its website states that Real Clear Politics called it the "most accurate pollster of the cycle among those firms that polled multiple Senate and governor races” this year.
New Mexico reports that 72.7% of residents have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of July 29, with 64.5% being fully vaccinated. This amounts to 1,049,673 fully vaccinated people.