Employer vaccination mandates are growing in popularity, but opposition remains

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A series of recent survey questions show a clear majority agree with various groups of workers, such as healthcare workers, government employees or teachers, being required to get vaccinated or to stop to work. But a clear split remains in demanding that a wider range of employees get vaccinated – unless they have the opportunity to be tested every week to keep Covid unvaccinated.

“There seems to be a little more acceptance of the idea of warrants,” said Liz Hamel, vice president and director of public opinion and poll research at KFF, the healthcare think tank. which is one of the groups leading the polls. “But I wouldn’t say it’s popular.”

The Gallup polling firm saw a similar growth in mandate support compared to previous polls. Both investigations have been carried out since the Biden administration revealed its intention to implement a series of rules that will require vaccines for certain specific groups and for companies with 100 or more employees, to require vaccination or testing. . The KFF interviewed 1,500 people between September 13 and 22, while Gallup interviewed 4,000 between September 13 and 19.

The two found that just over 60% of those surveyed supported immunization mandates for employees of hospitals and other health facilities. The Gallup survey also found that 60% support vaccines for federal government employees, while KFF found 55% supporting such a mandate. These two specific groups would likely be required to get vaccinated as part of the Biden administration’s proposal.

A clear majority was in favor of vaccine requirements for teachers and other school staff, with 63% support in Gallup reading and 58% in KFF.

The KFF survey found that 50% were against employers in general demanding vaccination, compared to 48% in favor. However, that jumped to 58% support if the vaccination or testing option was included. Gallup also found that 58% supported the vaccination or testing requirement for companies with 100 or more workers.

Gallup also found that 58% of workers would strongly or somewhat support their own employers requiring a vaccine, even without the testing option. This is an increase from support of 52% in an August survey and just 42% in May.

By comparison, KFF found that 50% did not want their own employers to require vaccination. He also found that 19% worked for employers who already required vaccination and 28% would like their employers to institute such a rule.

Both surveys found that the percentage of people working for employers with such rules has increased steadily in recent months. In the June KFF survey, only 9% were working under the employer’s vaccination mandate. Gallup saw an even larger increase, from just 6% in the face of a vaccination warrant at their work in June to 29% in September.

Almost all United employees complied with the vaccination mandate

KFF found that the testing option would keep many unvaccinated workers at work if their employers implemented such a mandate. Of those unvaccinated workers, 56% said they would get tested every week if given the chance, 12% said they would get vaccinated, and 30% planned to quit their jobs. In June, when unvaccinated workers were simply asked what they would do if they needed to be vaccinated, with no possibility of avoiding it with testing, 48% said they would be vaccinated and 50% said declared that they would quit their jobs.

Hamel said it is possible that many of those who said they would quit their jobs in an investigation would not follow through when faced with a layoff. United Airlines (UAL) revealed this week that while its strict vaccine requirement came into effect for U.S. workers, less than 1% were at risk of being made redundant for not receiving a vaccine, and less than 3% requested an exemption medical or religious rule.

Unsurprisingly, the KFF survey revealed a wide difference of opinion on employers requiring vaccines for everyone except those with a medical reason not to get the vaccine. It found that 85% of unvaccinated people oppose such rules and 13% of unvaccinated people said they would support such a rule. Hamel said that it is possible that some intend to be vaccinated if necessary, or perhaps because they cannot get vaccinated themselves for medical reasons and want to work with other vaccinated. .

KFF also found that 62% of those vaccinated supported more stringent vaccination mandates from employers, with no option to test. But even among those who have been vaccinated, 36% oppose such a mandate.

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