It's June, which means Gallup will be releasing its polls. On Friday, a poll came out declaring that "U.S. Life Becomes Quasi-Normal as Virus Fears Fade." Perhaps the most encouraging take-away, which should also be the most expected, is that a "majority think healthy people should lead normal lives." While that ought to be a no-brainer, this is actually the first time the poll produced such a result.
The poll has asked, since March 2020, what "Americans' preferred advice for lifestyle during the pandemic" was, with the options being "To stay home as much as possible to avoid contracting or spreading the coronavirus" and "To lead their normal lives as much as possible and avoid interruptions to work and business."
Respondents were asked the question as it pertains to "people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus and are otherwise healthy."
Now that 91 percent chose the former in March of last year isn't all that surprising. We've come a long way since then, though. In April 2021, those numbers were 55-45 percent. A month later, in May, those numbers pretty much flipped, from 56 favoring the latter, while 44 still wanted people to stay home.
Gallup notes that the poll was conducted May 18-23, which was after the CDC updated its guidelines to get with the science and acknowledge that fully vaccinated people did not have to wear masks indoors.
It's worth wondering, then, why those numbers aren't a lot higher after such an update, especially when the question pertains to healthy people without symptoms.
The answer, not surprisingly, could be thanks to Democratic respondents. The poll's write-up reads:
As seen previously, there is a substantial partisan divide on the advice question, with 87% of Republicans versus 64% of independents and 29% of Democrats recommending people should strive to lead their normal lives. Conversely, 71% of Democrats believe people should stay home as much as possible, although this is down from 85% in April.
According to results published Friday evening from a daily tracker provided by the CDC, 41.4 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated; 51.15 percent have received at least one dose. President Joe Biden has set a goal for 70 percent of Americans to receive at least one dose of the vaccine by July 4.
If you have been fully vaccinated, the chances of you contracting the virus are less than one percent. You are even less likely to have more than a mild case of the virus.
Again, it's worth emphasizing that the poll asks about healthy people.
The poll also asked respondents about if their life was back to normal, "thinking about your life before the start of the coronavirus." The most recent results show 57 percent say their life is "somewhat back to normal," while 34 percent say "not yet back to normal." Nine percent their lives are "completely back to normal."
Broken down for demographics, 60 percent of Republicans say their lives are "somewhat back to normal," while 58 percent of Independents, and 55 percent of Democrats say so. The biggest gap by demographics is when it comes to those who say their lives are "completely back to normal," with 17 percent of Republicans saying so. Ten percent of Independents chose such an answer, while just 2 percent of Democrats did.
Fortunately, the numbers of people who say the situation is getting a lot or a little bit better are at 84 percent. And only 20 percent are very or somewhat worried that they will get the virus.