On Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said he wasn’t concerned with political fallout by reinstituting mask or vaccination mandates — saying he prioritizes public safety.
As it turns out, such mandates may help him score political points, too.
A recent survey by the COVID States Project, a four-college consortium that includes Rutgers University, showed that New Jersey residents support various vaccination requirements, including:
- 7% of residents support requiring a COVID-19 vaccine;
- 73% support a vaccine to get on an airplane;
- 2% support making vaccine mandatory in elementary and secondary schools;
- 4% support a vaccine to return to college.
The COVID States Project is a joint project of the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the Network Science Institute of Northeastern University, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, and the Department of Political Science and Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
The group’s latest polling showed nationwide approval for mask and vaccine mandates by an approximate 2-1 margin.
In fact, majorities of respondents in nearly all states approve of the four types of mandates considered. Exceptions include Arkansas, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho, where more residents did not support making vaccines mandatory in schools.
