Most Americans have accepted that COVID-19 isn't going away and think that it's time to just "get on with our lives."
A new poll by Monmouth University found that 7 in 10 respondents agree with the sentiment that "it's time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives."
"Americans' worries about Covid haven't gone away. It seems more to be a realization that we are not going to get this virus under control in a way that we thought was possible just last year," Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
The poll found that 1 in 4 Americans (28%) don't think we will ever get back to "normal" pre-pandemic life. Meantime, one-third of those polled (34%) think the country will get the outbreak under control and return to normal by the end of the year.
The Monmouth poll found a key reason Americans are resigned to living with COVID-19 is because of people who won't get vaccinated.
While nearly half of American adults (45%) report getting a booster shot, a significant number (37%) remain unlikely to ever do so – which includes 17% who remain opposed even to getting the initial vaccination, according to the poll.
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 63.8% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated and 41.7% have received a booster dose.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, the infectious disease director at the University of Minnesota, said the recent surge in cases fueled by the Omicron variant show how the coronavirus will continue to permeate daily life.
"We have to understand we have a new reality with this omicron variant as a part of the COVID pandemic," Osterholm told News Talk 830 WCCO's Vineeta Sawkar. "We will continue to see new variants develop and this is why we need long term plans."
When it comes to getting the virus under control, the poll found that a majority of the public continues to support some preventative measures, such as face mask and social distancing guidelines, but not others, such as workplace vaccine mandates.
Just over half of Americans (52%) support instituting, or reinstituting, face mask and social distancing guidelines in their home state, according to the poll. Meantime, less than half of the public (43%) supports requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to work in an office or other setting where they are around other people.
Opinion on how the American public is dealing with the pandemic remains largely negative, at 29% good job and 58% bad job, according to the poll.
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