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Most Americans think COVID will never go away: Poll

Tuesday, 19 July 2022 6:03 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 July 2022 6:03 PM ]

This photo taken on January 07, 2022 shows a COVID-19 vaccine being prepared for administration at Union Station in Los Angeles, California. (File photo by AFP)

A recent poll has showed that the majority of Americans believe COVID will never go away.

The Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index released on Tuesday found that American adults were largely divided into three camps: those that consider the pandemic over, those that feel left behind by their peers, and those that are muddling through.

The majority, 78 percent, of those who took part in the survey believed: “We will never fully be rid of the coronavirus in my lifetime.”

However, 29 percent of respondents said they believed that the pandemic was over, indicating that they believed the pandemic conditions were over yet the virus will remain.

The main concern of respondents was that the pandemic was spreading the virus to people at a higher risk of developing a severe case of the coronavirus, according to the poll with an error margin of plus or minus 3.0 - 3.5 .

Three out of four people in the survey said they were willing to get another booster vaccine dose if it was recommended.

In the meantime, the Biden administration on Wednesday suspended enforcement of a vaccine mandate on private companies with 100 or more employees.

The move, which was carried out through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, comes less than a week after the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of the mandate.

US President Joe Biden had announced the mandate on Nov. 4.

Meanwhile, a Guardian report last month suggested that the virus cases could be undercounted by a factor of 30.

‘Playing with fire’: COVID-19 cases in US 30 times higher than reported

The United States finds itself in the throes of the fourth wave of coronavirus, according to the official case count, albeit experts say the actual current rate could be 30 times higher than reported.

“It would appear official case counts are under-estimating the true burden of infection by about 30-fold, which is a huge surprise,” Denis Nash, an author of the study and a professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York School of Public Health, is quoted as saying in the report.

In recent weeks, confirmed daily US cases have been rising again, powered by a rising tide of Omicron sub-variants currently circulating the country.

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