Even as COVID-19 cases, driven by Delta and other variants, continue to rise in the United States, about 70 percent of unvaccinated Americans who are not self-employed said they would likely leave their jobs if their employers mandated COVID-19 vaccines and did not grant them religious or medical exemptions.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll said that these numbers don’t suggest that vaccine mandates would lead to a massive exodus from the workplace since a healthy majority of employees who are working at places that have yet to enforce a mandate have already received their jabs.
But among the 30 percent or so who haven’t, there is significant opposition. Only 16 percent from that group said that they would follow a mandate, while 35 percent said they would seek an exemption and 42 percent said they would leave. If there’s no exemption, then 72 percent of those surveyed said they would quit.
Although this is a surprising number, there has been a decline in the refusal among the unvaccinated population to get vaccinated. Doctors continue to urge people to get their shots as the benefits of getting vaccinated most often outweigh the risks of getting sick.
The Washington Post and ABC News conducted another poll recently, and the concern about getting the virus among the unvaccinated adults’ population grew from 22 percent to 35 percent in the past two months. Because of the growing concern, the percentage of people receiving the vaccine jumped from 67 percent last July to 75 percent this month. The poll, likewise, found that younger Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
One of the most common reasons why the unvaccinated population still refuses to get a COVID-19 vaccine is they remain doubtful and critical as to the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.
Because of this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) release updates and announcements regularly proving the safety of the vaccines. They also reiterate that the percentage of hospitalization in the unvaccinated population is much higher than those vaccinated.
