WASHINGTON — As the world deals with a global surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant, and the Biden administration marks one year in office, new polling conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of The ONE Campaign found an overwhelming majority of Americans believe the US should do more to end the global pandemic, including providing more vaccines to low-income countries to stop the spread of new variants. 

Key findings from the nationwide poll of 2,001 registered voters in the US:

There is overwhelming support for the US providing COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries: 

• Three quarters of voters approve (77%) of the US providing vaccines to low-income countries battling COVID-19, including 43% who strongly approve of the US providing vaccines. 

Respondents also strongly agree the US must do more to end the pandemic & stop the spread of new variants at home and abroad, including increasing vaccine access and providing more funds to distribute vaccines globally: 

• Three quarters of voters agree (76%) that until much of the world has access to vaccines, we will continue to see the emergence of new COVID-19 variants like Delta and Omicron, including 45% who strongly agree with this statement. 
• Three-in-five voters (61%) agree with President Biden’s goal to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population by September 2022. A little over half of voters (54%) are satisfied with the administration’s progress toward its global vaccination goal (to vaccinate 70% of the world by September 2022), although only about a quarter (22%) are very satisfied. 
• Over half of possible (55%) and likely (59%) midterm voters expect the administration’s efforts to curb COVID-19 rates globally will have a positive effect on domestic COVID-19 rates.
• There is strong support for Congress allocating funds to facilitate the US providing vaccines to low-income countries battling COVID-19 (70% support). 

Americans believe US leadership in the fight to end the global pandemic has improved since the Trump administration: Leadership has improved – voters on both sides of the aisle perceive the US as leading the world in the fight to stop the spread of COVID-19 (45%) rather than lagging behind (33%), whereas in 2020 they were more likely to say the US was lagging (49%) rather than leading (31%). There is an increase in perceived leadership in 2021 (61%) compared to 2020 (49%) for responding to global infectious diseases.

“We must stop this pandemic everywhere in order to stop it here,” said Tom Hart, president of The ONE Campaign. “A domestic-only response will fail. Variants like Omicron are wreaking havoc in the US and across the world. The longer the US and other wealthy countries wait to vaccinate the world, the more power we give new variants to emerge. As this poll has shown, there is strong support from the American people to increase funding and access to vaccines. So, what are we waiting for?

“As we enter our third year of the pandemic, it seems we have not learned any lessons from the past two. While the US has led the fight against the global pandemic, wealthy countries are not moving with the urgency needed to end the pandemic. The Biden administration must stop talking about what it has done and start talking about what it will take to end the pandemic. We need a date for Biden’s global vaccine summit and a clear set of commitments wealthy countries must bring to the summit to reach the goal of vaccinating 70% of the world by September 2022.”

Background:

In 2021, the Biden administration hosted a summit with world leaders and set out a global goal to have 70% of the world vaccinated by September 2022. But, wealthy countries are failing to meet that target. At our current rate of progress, it will take more than a decade to reach that goal. 

The poll was conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of The ONE Campaign. The survey of 2,001 registered US voters was conducted between December 14-16 with a margin of error of  +/- 2 percent.

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 25, 2021

CONTACT: Caroline Rourke, [email protected]