A declining number of people have expressed concern about schools reopening during the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll found.
In late August, 74% of respondents said that they had some level of concern with schools reopening, and now, that number has dropped to 59%, the Axios/Ipsos Coronavorus Index found. Half of all respondents said that they felt extremely or very concerned about schools reopening in August, compared to one-third of all respondents saying the same now.
Democrats are about twice as worried about schools reopening as Republicans, the poll found. (RELATED: Billions Of Dollars Of Coronavirus Stimulus Still Hasn’t Been Spent, Republican Senators Say In Letter To Biden)
NEW from our weekly #COVID19 poll: Americans are deeply worried about new strains of the coronavirus – but fears have eased around sending children back to school. @ipsosus https://t.co/IzHw7PUn6B #axiosam
— Margaret Talev (@margarettalev) February 2, 2021
Despite easing anxiety about sending children back to school, Americans are still worried about new strains of the virus – 83% said that they are concerned or “extremely” concerned about the new strains, which may be more transmissible. Concerns about the new strain may be prompting some to wear two masks. 15% of Americans, who tended to be older and more Democratic, said that they wore two masks sometimes or all the time when they leave their home.
Respondents also didn’t tend to see life returning to normal any time soon, with only 26% saying that they expect life to return to normal in the next six months. 30% of people polled said that they didn’t expect life to return to pre-COVID normal for over a year, and 8% said life would never return to normal. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say life would return to normal within 6 months, but the majority of respondents in both political parties said that it would take longer.
The survey was conducted between Jan. 29 and Feb. 1. A nationally representative probability sample of 1,038 American adults were polled with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.