As COVID-19 continues to overwhelm nurses and push hospitals near capacity, including in North Carolina, President Joe Biden took decisive action to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and protect the economy recovery. Multiple polls in the past week have shown that the vast majority of the American people support the president’s plan to defeat the pandemic.

• Fox News released a poll that found that fifty-six percent of Americans agree with President Biden’s decision to require businesses of 100-plus employees to be vaccinated or take weekly tests. 
• Monmouth conducted a poll that found that 63 percent of Americans support vaccinations for health care workers, sixty percent support immunization for teachers and school staff, and fifty-eight percent of Americans support a vaccine requirement for federal employees. 
• Similar findings were also found in polls by Axios/Ipsos and Politico/Morning Consult. 

Republicans seem to realize that North Carolina voters are tired of their pro-pandemic policies. Legislative Republicans have continuously pushed pro-pandemic policies like attempting to block critical unemployment insurance and failing to expand access to health care, putting greater strain on rural hospitals and the overall health care system,

In a recent report by the News & Observer, Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger didn’t levy his usual partisan attacks and instead said “everyone should get the vaccine.” The political arms of the North Carolina Republican Party seem to also be happily following President Biden’s leadership with the GOP Executive Director saying, “a vaccine mandate could be the greatest idea in the world.”   

“This is just the latest example of Republicans’ hiding behind strong Democratic leadership and hoping voters forget their out of touch policies,” said NCDP spokesperson Rachel Stein. “The American people overwhelmingly support President Biden and Democrats’ plan to crush the virus and get our economy back on track, and Republicans may finally be realizing they’ve ended up on the wrong side of ending the pandemic.”

Democrats know that stopping the spread of COVID-19 ensures students can safely stay in school, small businesses can continue to thrive, and the economy will continue to get back on track. 

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