50 percent back Biden vaccine mandate for companies: survey

Fifty percent of voters back President Biden’s vaccine mandate for large private companies, according to a Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday. 

The poll also found 47 percent of voters opposed the measure.

Biden’s order requires all private companies with more than 100 employees mandate their workers receive a coronavirus vaccine or be tested regularly. It was slated to go into effect Jan. 4 but has been put on a hold by a federal court in response to a number of challenges.

Local and state mandates requiring first responders, like police officers and firefighters, to get the coronavirus vaccine enjoy slightly more support, with 55 percent in favor of and 44 percent opposed to the measures, the poll found.

Vaccine mandates in schools also generated mixed opinions among voters in the poll, with mandates for older students more popular than for younger children. 

A majority of voters at 51 percent supported school vaccine mandates for children older than 12, with 45 percent against the measure. For children ages five to 11, voters were evenly split with 48 percent in support and 48 percent opposed to a school coronavirus vaccine mandate. 

The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is the only one currently approved in the U.S. for children, with the vaccine for those as young as five only recently on the market. 

The poll surveyed 1,500 registered voters from Nov. 16 to Nov. 22. The margin or error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.