61% of Americans think new CDC recommendations for indoor masking are a good idea: poll

People wear masks as they walk through Union Station on July 30, 2021 in Washington, DC.

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• A poll found that 61% of Americans think people in area with high rates of COVID should mask up indoors.
• Most Americans do not support vaccine mandates at universities and businesses, per the Quinnipiac poll.
• 58% of Americans said they were concerned about the Delta variant of COVID-19.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

According to a new poll by Quinnipiac University, 61% of Americans say it's a "good idea" for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in regions with high rates of COVID-19 transmission to wear masks while indoors, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended last week. Just 34% think it's a bad idea.

At the same time, the poll found that Americans disapprove of the CDC's handling of mask guidelines by a margin of 49% to 44%. A poll by Monmouth University last week found that 59% of Americans thought the CDC had been giving "mixed messaging" on the virus.

58% of adult respondents said they were concerned about the Delta variant of COVID-19, though another 21% said they did not plan to get the vaccine. 51% of those that are refusing vaccines say they don't believe the vaccine is safe.

Americans stand more divided on the issue of COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Most Americans support mandates for healthcare workers (60%) and government employees (53%), while respondents were narrowly opposed to the same requirements for university students and employees of private businesses.

Respondents were also asked about climate change. In light of recent extreme weather events in the US, 46% of Americans say they're worried that they or a family member will be affected by an extreme weather event. Meanwhile, 61% of Americans believe these events are tied to climate change, and the same percentage of Americans say that climate change is an emergency.

The Quinnipiac University poll, conducted from July 27 to August 2, included 1,290 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. The CDC announced new recommendations for vaccinated people on July 27.

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