About two-thirds of Oklahomans believe COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, but a majority think state government should stay out of businesses’ decisions about requiring vaccinations of employees, according to a recent poll.
“We’re a populist state, and the poll reinforces that,” said pollster Pat McFerron of CHS & Associates, a national polling and Republican political consulting firm based in Oklahoma City.
McFerron’s quarterly Sooner Survey, released Tuesday, asked a scientific sample of 500 registered voters statewide a series of questions about COVID-19 during the four-day period July 19-22. The poll has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
Some 65% of respondents agreed with the statement that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, while 27% disagreed.
That compares to a national poll, taken about a week earlier, in which 61% said COVID-19 is more dangerous than the vaccine. In that poll, 18% said the vaccine is more dangerous than COVID-19.
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Perhaps of more practical import was McFerron’s finding that 57% of Oklahomans don’t want the government either mandating or barring employer vaccination requirements.
This comes as one faction of lawmakers demands a special session to bar health care providers from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations and another wants to give school districts more leeway in dealing with a resurgence of the virus.
Only 20% of poll respondents said state government should require employees of businesses to be vaccinated. Slightly fewer, 17%, said the state should prohibit businesses from requiring vaccinations.
“The majority of the people want to let the businesses decide for themselves,” McFerron said.
There is, however, quite a bit of disagreement along political party and ideology lines.
Republicans — and especially self-identified “very conservative” Republicans — are much less likely than Democrats to favor vaccination mandates or to say they believe that vaccines are safe and effective.
The picture also changes somewhat when respondents are asked specific questions about health care providers.
Sixty percent overall, and half of Republicans, said patients have a right to know whether their providers have been vaccinated and are taking precautions.
Sixty-four percent said it is “appropriate” for nursing homes and businesses that serve immune-compromised populations to require employee vaccinations.
The sample was almost evenly divided on whether vaccinations should be required of state employees who come into regular contact with the public.
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