Poll shows most Americans are done with masks, COVID boosters and precautions
BOSTON – President Biden said during a recent "60 Minutes" interview that "The pandemic is over," sending his aides scrambling to say he didn't really mean it.
And from the president to Massachusetts gubernatorial frontrunner Maura Healey hanging with the maskless throngs at the Big E in Springfield recently, there's a consistent message from our political leaders.
"I think especially after COVID, where so many of us didn't get a chance to do these sorts of things to have the opportunity to come out, to be together to bring your family, to support our economy, it's just great," gushed Healey.
But are these politicians dropping the public health ball?
New national polling by Monmouth University shows support for masking and distancing guidelines has cratered over the past year, with just one in four endorsing them. And where once a majority backed requiring proof of vaccination to enter an office or other populated place, now barely one-third do.
"It's very concerning that so many people think the pandemic is over. It is not over," Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, head of the COVID Risk Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute, said.
He predicts the desire of politicians in an election year to tell the public what they want to hear about COVID is headed for a collision with a nasty incoming COVID surge.
"It will be bad, and if you don't heed the warnings now you will be completely unprepared," Feigl-Ding said.
"Case numbers are going to increase during the winter so I strongly recommend that people get the vaccine," added Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
But while two-thirds of us said a year ago we were likely to get the new booster, now nearly half say they'll give it a miss.
"COVID is still a big threat and high case numbers in addition can be enormously disruptive," Sax said.
So what are these experts saying about the prospect of returning to some of these COVID precautions?
Sax noted that on a recent trip through Logan Airport, hardly anyone in the terminal or on his flight was wearing a mask. But he was.
And Dr. Feigl-Ding predicts that now that people have gotten a taste of freedom, it will be very hard to get them to return to masking or distancing.
That poll finding about half of the public saying they won't bother to get the new booster is especially chilling. If the pivotal battle of this war against COVID was to get most of us to take it seriously, then it looks like the verdict is in - we lost.