Poll: Slim majority in U.S. backs return of masking

Biden's administration is now facing a difficult task in attempting to make progress against Covid-19.The poll of 804 adults took place July 21-26. There was a margin for sampling error of 3.5 percent.A poll found that over half of respondents were concerned that Covid-19 could cause serious illness in their loved ones. This is a 10 percentage point increase from the results of a month ago. This spike occurs as the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19 has spread through the country, undoing months of progress in reducing hospitalizations and deaths.However, 17 percent said they opposed getting vaccinated. 70% of those surveyed said they were aligned to the Republican Party, while only 6 percent stated they supported Democrats.The 9 percent who were polled said that they were less skeptical about the vaccine, but would be open to being convinced. This cohort showed a smaller partisan divide with 45 percent indicating that they are Republican or leaning that way, compared to 40 percent who leaned toward Democrats.According to the poll, Americans' views on each other had become increasingly negative. The poll found that more than half of respondents felt the American public was doing an inadequate job managing the pandemic. This is up from 40% in June. Only a third of those surveyed said they thought the population was doing a good task, down from 42% in Monmouths' survey a month earlier.