The Unvaccinated, Foreign Travelers, Trump, Biden: New Poll Breaks Down Who Americans Blame for Covid Surge

Sean Rayford, Getty

A wild new poll among the vaccinated and unvaccinated shows stark divides about who or what each group blames for the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the spread of new variants.

The Axios-Ipsos survey asked respondents, “Which of the following people or groups, if any, do you blame for the rising COVID-19 cases and spread of new variants in the U.S.?”

Respondents were allowed to select multiple “culprits.”

Among the vaccinated, 78.6% said the unvaccinated are to blame; 35.7% blame former President Donald Trump; almost as many blame conservative media. Nearly 30% blame foreign travelers in the U.S.

While vaccinated Americans are fairly uniform in blaming the unvaccinated for the spread, the unvaccinated are less sure about who’s to blame. The leading contender among that group is foreign travelers in the United States (36.9%), followed by the mainstream media (27.1%), and Americans who have traveled internationally (22.7%).

Interestingly, 21.4% of unvaccinated people blame President Joe Biden for the spread. Biden of course has been relentlessly urging Americans to get vaccinated. However, only about half the country is fully vaccinated.

Unsurprisingly, only 9.8% of unvaccinated people blame the unvaccinated for the spread, and even fewer (7.5%) blame conservative media.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted last month showed a clear divide among Republicans and Democrats when it comes to vaccination rates. As of early July, counties that voted for Joe Biden collectively had a 46.7% vaccination rate, compared to 35% in counties that voted for Trump.

The Biden administration has been highly critical of social media companies that have allowed false information about Covid-19 and the vaccines to spread on their platforms.

“They’re killing people,” the president said last month.

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