New NJ poll: How worried about COVID are people in 2022?

Concern about COVID continues to drop in New Jersey, according to a just-released poll.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute said the newest Monmouth University survey finds “34% of the state supports bringing back mask mandates and social distancing guidelines, 64% are opposed to that."

“If we go back just a few months ago that was more than 6 in 10 who actually supported bringing those back," he said.

Murray pointed out that support for re-instituting COVID guidelines has declined among every partisan group, but the largest drop has occurred among Democrats – from 89% who supported these measures in September to 50% who back them now.

A split on mandating workplace vaccines

He said the poll also finds 45% of respondents support requiring proof of COVID vaccination at work, while 52% oppose it, but there’s a big partisan divide on this issue.

— 72% of Democrats versus  17% of Republicans think there should be some sort of vaccine mandate in the workplace.

— 23% are concerned about a family member getting very ill from COVID. That’s down from about 4 in 10 who felt that way back in the fall, and 6 in 10 when the pandemic started.

I think I've had it

He noted about half of respondents indicated they either have had the virus or suspect they had it at some point during the pandemic, and that may one main reason why concern is going down.

He said when people were asked about booster shots “we found that 59% report that they’ve gotten a booster shot right now, that’s higher than what we found nationally, just 24% say that they’re not at all likely to get a booster shot.”

He noted 46% of Republicans say they’re not at all likely to get a booster, compared to 8% of Democrats.

Big support for Murphy

Murray said when Jersey residents were asked how Gov. Murphy has handled the pandemic “he’s getting 67% who say he’s done a good job, and that was an issue that we saw last year when he was running for reelection.”

He pointed out “the pandemic has been the one area where the governor has consistently gotten positive ratings.

While 2 out of 3 state residents approve of his handling the health crisis, 25% say he’s done a bad job.

The poll also finds 53% of respondents believe Jersey has done a better job than other states in dealing with the pandemic, 14% say it has done worse, and 31% believe Jersey has been about the same as other states.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from March 31 to April 4 with 802 New Jersey adults. The question results in this release have a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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