Most in new poll say pandemic’s impact on daily life may be over

Story at a glance

Americans’ belief in God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil fell to the lowest point in more than two decades.

Belief in all five spiritual entities has decreased 3 to 5 points since 2016.

Americans who regularly attend religious services, Protestants and Republicans were all more likely to believe in such spiritual entities.

In a new poll from Monmouth University Poll, 21 percent of respondents said that the coronavirus pandemic is over and 25 percent support instituting or reinstituting face mask and social distancing guidelines, down from 63 percent a year ago. About 800 people were polled last month between Sept. 21-25.

This new poll suggests that people are shifting how they think about the COVID-19 pandemic and their attitudes toward public health measures. Twenty-six percent said it was not over yet but would be eventually, and 50 percent said that the pandemic would never be over, according to a press release.

The poll results also found that fewer people plan on getting the new bivalent booster shot. About 51 percent of adults got the previous booster shots, but 33 percent respondents in this poll said they were very likely to get the bivalent shot and 1 percent had already gotten it. Ten percent they were “not too likely” to get it, and 39 percent said “not at all likely.”

Across Republicans, independents and Democrats, the proportion of people intending to get the bivalent booster dropped for all groups compared to previous shots. Fewer Republicans and independents intend to get the new shot at 12 and 26 percent, respectively, compared to 66 percent of Democrats who intend to get it or already have.

“You can understand the drop in support for mask mandates since people want to get on with their lives, but the decline in support for vaccine mandates is interesting. I think it might be because people continue to get Covid despite being vaccinated,” said Patrick Murray, the director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in the press release.