Wisconsin poll shows partisan divide on COVID-19 vaccinations
MADISON – A new statewide poll from the Marquette University Law School shows a stark partisan divide in vaccinations, with significant majorities of Democrats and independents reporting they’d received a COVID-19 vaccine while a minority of Republicans said they had done so.
The poll also found a diminishing majority who said last year’s shutdowns were appropriate.
When it comes to vaccines, the poll showed there was “considerable reluctance” among voters who were not vaccinated to get a vaccine.
That could pose challenges for state health officials who are urging people to get vaccinated as cases rise fueled by the rapidly spreading delta variant. The state’s vaccination rate has leveled off to about 50% of the total population that is fully vaccinated.
Democrats and independents were more likely to be vaccinated: 87% of Democrats and 71% of independents said they received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, compared to 45% of Republicans who said they were vaccinated.
Voters who were not vaccinated were considerably reluctant to getting a vaccine. That reluctance was highest among Republicans: 55% said they would definitely not get the shot. More than half of unvaccinated independents and Democrats also said they will probably or definitely not get the vaccine.
The survey found 68% of voters had received at least one dose of the vaccine, which matches the percentage recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the last day the poll was conducted.
Twenty-six percent of respondents said they had not been vaccinated and 7% said they did not know or declined to answer.
For those who had not gotten a vaccine, 49% said they will definitely not get a vaccine and 27% said they probably will not get the vaccine.
There is still some potential for some who are not vaccinated to get a vaccine: 14% said they probably will get vaccinated and 8% said they will definitely get vaccinated.
A partisan divide also could be seen in unvaccinated respondents who were more open to getting the vaccine: 18% of Democrats compared to 4% of Republicans said they would definitely get the vaccine; 19% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans said they would probably get it.
A decreasing percentage of registered voters saw the closure of businesses and schools last year as an appropriate response to the pandemic compared to when the poll was conducted in previous months.
In March 2020 when the restrictions were implemented and the pandemic first hit Wisconsin, 86% said then the shutdowns were appropriate and 10% said they were an overreaction.
In this poll, 62% said it was an appropriate response and 35% said it was an overreaction that did more harm than good. That’s down from October 2020, when 68% said the shutdown was appropriate and 26% said it was an overreaction.
When asked about the pace of school reopenings during the pandemic, 54% said their local schools reopened at about the right pace. Twenty-six percent said schools reopened too slowly and 13% said they reopened too quickly.