Majorities of Americans now favor requiring people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to travel by airplane, stay in a hotel, attend events with large crowds, dine in a restaurant and go to their office or work site.

Would you favor or oppose businesses requiring people to show proof of coronavirus/COVID-19 vaccination in order to do the following over the next several months?
 

The most recent update of these questions is from an Aug. 16-22 survey included in Gallup's ongoing COVID-19 probability-based web panel. There has been little change since April in views of vaccination requirements for airplanes and attending events. Opinions about staying in hotels and dining in restaurants have shifted. In April, majorities of Americans were opposed to vaccination requirements for hotels and dining; now, majorities are in favor.

These views are not universally held, however, reflecting divisions in public opinion on many of the issues surrounding COVID. The percentages of Americans in favor of vaccination requirements range from 53% to 61% across the five situations tested, leaving a nontrivial 39% to 47% who are opposed. In short, if it came to a national referendum, these vaccination proof requirements would win -- but with significant opposition.

Vaccination Status and Attitudes Toward Vaccination Requirements

One of the predictable, but important, divisions in opinions on vaccination requirements is current vaccination status. Those who report having personally been vaccinated -- 69% of U.S. adults have gotten at least one dose, according to Gallup's latest polling -- are much more likely in turn to favor vaccination requirements.

Attitudes Toward Vaccination Requirements, by Vaccination Status

Would you favor or oppose businesses requiring people to show proof of coronavirus/COVID-19 vaccination in order to do the following over the next several months?

The relationship between vaccination status and attitudes about vaccination requirements, however, is by no means perfect. As seen in the accompanying table, between 20% and 32% of Americans give seemingly contradictory opinions -- vaccinated people who say there should be no vaccination requirements to do these activities, and unvaccinated people who say there should be. Apparently, for a number of Americans, the personal decision to get vaccinated is independent of their views on whether such actions should be required by businesses and employers.

Democrats Overwhelmingly Favor Vaccination Proof; Republicans Oppose

Americans' political identity is strongly related to their opinions about vaccine requirements, echoing similar partisan differences on such issues as vaccination hesitancy, mask requirements and the importance of COVID-19 as the nation's top problem. Very large majorities of Democrats are in favor of each of the five vaccination requirements tested, while slightly smaller, but still substantial, majorities of Republicans are opposed to each. Independents are more evenly divided, although majorities of independents are opposed to four of the situations, with a precise 50/50 split in opinions about requiring vaccinations for air travel.

Attitudes Toward Vaccination Requirements, by Political Identity

Would you favor or oppose businesses requiring people to show proof of coronavirus/COVID-19 vaccination in order to do the following over the next several months?

Americans' mindsets about vaccine requirements are clearly related to both their underlying partisan orientation and their personal decisions about getting the vaccine. Thus, subgroups of Americans defined by the combination of both of these variables are particularly differentiated in their opinions.

The variation across these party/vaccination status groups is extreme. For example, 96% of vaccinated Democrats favor the requirement for proof of vaccination before flying on an airplane, compared with 12% of unvaccinated Republicans. Ninety-four percent of vaccinated Democrats favor the requirement for attendance at events, compared with 9% of unvaccinated Republicans. Still, vaccinated Democrats, independents and Republicans are in all instances more positive about vaccine requirements than those in each political group who are not vaccinated. And Democrats and Republicans, despite some variation by vaccination status, remain poles apart in their views -- with majorities of Democrats, regardless of vaccination status, approving of all five vaccination requirements and more than half of Republicans, regardless of vaccination status, disapproving.

There appear to be some variations in the relative impact of partisanship and vaccination status across party groups. Independents are by definition less tethered to a political identity than Democrats or Republicans, and independents' vaccination status is more strongly related to views on vaccination requirements than is the case for the other two groups.

Attitudes Toward Vaccination Requirements, by Political Identity and Vaccination Status

Would you favor or oppose businesses requiring people to show proof of coronavirus/COVID-19 vaccination in order to do the following over the next several months?

Bottom Line

At this point, the actual implementations of proof of vaccination requirements across the five situations tested in this research are widely varied. Most U.S. airlines are not yet requiring proof of vaccination, nor are most hotels or dining establishments. But a number of indoor events are requiring proof of vaccination or a recent COVID test for attendance, and increasing numbers of businesses are requiring vaccinations for their workers.

The most significant implication of these attitudinal data for businesses and companies contemplating vaccination requirements is the finding that such measures will by no means be greeted with universal approval. A significant minority of Americans and U.S. workers oppose such moves, and many of those do so strongly, although obviously the particular customers or workers involved in each situation will make a big difference in determining the precise level of opposition. Airlines will have a marginally easier time putting such requirements in place -- hotels and dining establishments, somewhat less so.

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