(CNS News) -- Although President Joe Biden has ordered vaccine mandates for federal workers and employees of companies with more than 100 workers, several national polls show that a strong minority of about 44% of Americans oppose the idea while a very solid 56% support the idea.
"A majority of U.S. adults support the idea of requiring employees to be vaccinated -- as we have previously reported -- but it is by no means a supermajority," said Gallup Senior Scientist Frank Newport in a Sept. 17 commentary.
"Gallup Panel data collected Aug. 16-22 found 56% of Americans in favor of requiring workers to show proof of vaccination before reporting to an office or work site, and 44% opposed."
A separate Gallup poll found "52% of workers supporting the idea of their employer requiring all workers without a medical exemption to be vaccinated, with 38% opposed," said Newport.
In similar surveys, Quinnipiac, for instance, asked "As you may know, President Biden's plan mandates that employers with more than 100 employees must require that all employees receive a COVID-19 vaccine or undergo at least weekly testing -- do you approve or disapprove of this mandate?"
In response, 53% said they support the mandate while 46% oppose it.
A CNN poll found 54% in favor of the mandate and 46% opposed.
Newport also noted an Axios-Ipsos poll (Sept. 10-13), which found "60% supporting and 39% opposing 'a federal government rule that all businesses with 100 or more employees require all staff to be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID testing.'"
"In summary, available data at this point show that between 53% and 60% of Americans support the concept of vaccination requirements for employees," said Newport.
"On the other hand," he commented, "there is fierce and public opposition to the mandate among many Republican leaders."
"Biden recently met with business leaders in an attempt to build support for his proposed vaccine mandates, but it will take more than that to build support among the large minority of rank-and-file Americans who oppose vaccine requirements," said Newport.
"[I]t appears that changing Americans' minds on mandates is not going to be easy, and it may be that Biden will need to reconcile himself to the continued opposition of a significant percentage of the American people," Newport concluded.
