Poll: 70% Covid is here to stay and move on with our lives

New Poll: 70% Say It’s Time to Accept COVID Is Here to Stay and Move On With Our Lives

“…A newly released Monmouth University Poll reveals that 70% of Americans agree it’s time to accept that COVID is here to stay and move on with our lives. I couldn’t agree more.

Interestingly, of the 70% who agree it’s time to move on, 78% “report having gotten COVID and 65% of those who say they have not been infected.” It seems even those who have yet to get the virus are saying enough is enough. Surprisingly, exposure to the virus doesn’t appear to be the main factor in determining whether it’s “time to move on.” Monmouth claims the main factor “is due to partisanship—ranging from 89% of Republicans and 71% of independents to 47% of Democrats.” Seriously? That seems a little partisan and short-sighted since Americans of all parties prefer to work, attend school, and live life over being locked down.

“Americans’ worries about COVID haven’t gone away,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It seems more to be a realization that we are not going to get this virus under control in a way that we thought was possible just last year.” Of course, they haven’t gone away because Biden and his Democratic minions push COVID fear 24/7.

The poll finds a majority of Americans continue to support some preventative measures, such as face masks and social distancing, though they don’t support others, such as workplace vaccine mandates. “We still see public support for maintaining some degree of public safety around COVID,” said Murray. “However, there appears to be an acknowledgment that federal measures have not been effective, or at least have failed to be widely accepted.” What they don’t mention here is that most Americans have always supported these measures. What we haven’t supported is the government forcing us to do so…”

“…the rapid and powerful injection of politics and ideology into public health and into healthcare itself…” Is a great mistake.

Public Health Has Become An Ideological Monoculture that is elitist and opaque

“…Harold Pollack is a distinguished professor of public health at the University of Chicago and self- described “emphatic liberal Democrat.” In an August 2021 Politico op-ed, Pollack writes that COVID-19 vaccination efforts are lagging in part because “the people spreading the message about the Covid vaccine”—that is, public health professionals—“don’t look or sound much like the people who need to heed this message.” Pollack implied that vaccine hesitancy is largely a phenomenon among political conservatives. As such, he decried the lack of conservatives in schools of public health, leading to “palpable absolutism and lazy groupthink among progressives.”…

…The problem is not merely one of ideology, but also of elitism. It appears that during the pandemic, public officials at times withheld information from the public, disseminated false information, and suppressed dissenting voices…

…Public health officials seem to discount the goals of ordinary Americans that may compete with goals of public health. For example, whereas reducing the spread of COVID-19 is good, mitigation measures involve some bad things: e.g., school closures, business closures and bankruptcies, damage to mental health, and loss of community. Done properly, lawmakers and regulators must consider both costs and benefits when making policy…”

Doug Santo