POLL: 44% of Americans think the Delta wave of COVID will be the worst yet

[Tekken_Guy]

https://navigatorresearch.org/the-delta-variant-and-rising-cases-renew-pandemic-concerns/

-44% of Americans say that the worst of the pandemic is yet to come. Yes, even with half of the country vaccinated and virtually immune to Delta, people think it's going to be worse than even during the Trump days.
-And while Biden is more still more trusted on the COVID response, his approval on the issue is going down.
-Head-to-head messaging that pin the blame on Biden "taking credit for the pandemic being over" when it wasn't vs. Republicans downplaying the virus and opposing masks/vaccinations is only a 50/50 split. Oof.

This is bad news for Biden. And coming from a Democratic pollster, no less. If people don't feel any more optimistic about the pandemic then they did when Trump was in office, this could be trouble for Democrats in the midterms.

[tallguy23]

It'll get worse in low vax areas but we won't see the same amount of deaths/hospitalizations.

[Joe Biden is your president. Deal with it.]

The delta variant surge may be short lived. Look at the UK and India, especially UK. Cases dropped off there and we are always a few weeks behind whatever happens in the UK.

[Not Me, Us]

The delta variant surge may be short lived. Look at the UK and India, especially UK. Cases dropped off there and we are always a few weeks behind whatever happens in the UK.

While that would be nice, I wouldn't count on it. UK's got a much higher vaxx % than we do, it probably just ran out of steam because of that. We could see UK-like drops in high vaxx states, but it'll rip through rural areas.

[Progressive Pessimist]

The only way it will get worse if if the damage by the unvaccinated has been done enough where they willfully became living petri dishes for an even deadlier, more easily transmissible Epsilon variant or something.

Obviously I'm not an optimist by nature, but I do think we've looked into the abyss and that finally scared at least some people in ways that will cause at least some improvement for the situation.

[It’s so Joever]

Well, the worst is hopefully over (knock on wood) but the current wave will be relatively worse at the peak than where we are now.

[Hope For A New Era]

The delta variant surge may be short lived. Look at the UK and India, especially UK. Cases dropped off there and we are always a few weeks behind whatever happens in the UK.

This is what gives me some optimism here. It seems like a Delta wave produces a short and very intense spike, not a drawn-out slow-motion nightmare like we experienced from October to February.

[MaximaEt_Illustratum]

It seems that vaccines are mostly effective against the Delta variant, but it doesn't hurt to be more careful.

[Tekken_Guy]

https://navigatorresearch.org/americans-broadly-oppose-governors-prohibiting-mask-mandates/

Update: Up to 51% now thinks the worst of the pandemic is still to come -- even worse than pre-vaccines. Not good for Biden.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

https://navigatorresearch.org/americans-broadly-oppose-governors-prohibiting-mask-mandates/

Update: Up to 51% now thinks the worst of the pandemic is still to come -- even worse than pre-vaccines. Not good for Biden.

Don't get me wrong, there is definitely more that Biden could and should be doing, but...

a) Biden is not responsible for the evolution of the Delta variant. The Delta variant was first detected in late 2020, before Biden was even inaugurated.
b) Biden is not responsible for the fact that ~half of Republicans refuse to get vaccinated, and huge numbers of Americans still refuse to take simple steps to reduce transmission such as wearing masks. You can't fix stupid, and there are a lot of stupid people out there.

It is unreasonable to blame Biden for those things. What you can legitimately blame him for is for STILL not fully mobilizing American/global vaccine production and distribution and coming up for a serious plan to deal with future variants that will eventually replace Delta and which are in the process of evolving now. There is reason to believe that future variants may end up being even worse than Delta and be more vaccine resistant. Although we can idly hope that is not the case, hope is not a plan, and it is the job of our leaders to come up with a plan and be prepared. It is not a threat that we don't know exists. But human beings are very shortsighted and very bad at planning for the future, especially in the instant gratification era of American social media culture. It is all "me me me, now now now." Long term planning does not exist.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

The delta variant surge may be short lived. Look at the UK and India, especially UK. Cases dropped off there and we are always a few weeks behind whatever happens in the UK.

This is what gives me some optimism here. It seems like a Delta wave produces a short and very intense spike, not a drawn-out slow-motion nightmare like we experienced from October to February.

Guys, I have a bad news for you re:Delta-cases in UK.

https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart

[HagridOfTheDeep]

If you’re a dopey unvaccinated Q hick living in some denialist part of the country, it’s pretty clear the worst is yet to come for you. But for me and my circle who rightly trust the vaccine science, the worst has long since passed.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The pandemic only exists among unvaccinated people.  More than 90% of these hospitalizations and deaths are from the 1/3 of the country that is still unvaccinated, a population that is more than 80% Republican.

If everyone was vaccinated, cases would drop to 1/12 their current levels.  And research has demonstrated clearly that the booster shots make the vaccine extremely effective even against Delta.

Vaccination ended the original COVID pandemic.  Now we have a Delta COVID pandemic.  Booster shots will end that.  But for the unvaccinated Republicans, the misery and death will only continue.  And frankly, the longer this goes on, the less sympathy I have for them.

I remember back during the election there were plenty of Republicans who liked to shout me down and spam their pro-COVID talking points on this forum.  I'm sure they all believed they were invincible and would never get COVID.  Haven't heard from those guys in a while.  I wonder whether they're all still alive.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://navigatorresearch.org/americans-broadly-oppose-governors-prohibiting-mask-mandates/

Update: Up to 51% now thinks the worst of the pandemic is still to come -- even worse than pre-vaccines. Not good for Biden.

I still don't see how that translates into losing faith in Biden rather than losing faith in other Americans.

[progressive85]

There's god knows how many more mutations of this thing.  It never ends.  It's like playing whack-a-mole.