The stunning collapse in confidence that the pandemic is behind us continues. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that just 28% of voters now believe we’ve put the worst behind us. That’s down six points from a week ago, down nine points from two weeks ago and down 28 points over the past two months.
Forty-five percent (45%) of voters now believe the worst is yet to come. That’s up seven points from a week ago, twelve points from two weeks ago, and up 25 points since late May.
These numbers are the most pessimistic measured since December of last year. Beginning with the rollout of the vaccines in January, confidence continually grew for five months.
By a 62% to 17% margin, government employees believe the worst is yet to come. Private sector workers are more evenly divided.
Those who say they will never get vaccinated are a bit less pessimistic than other voters. However, even those voters, by a 44% to 36% margin, tend to think the worst is yet to come.
Republicans are now evenly divided as to whether the worst is behind us or yet to come. A majority of Democrats and solid plurality of Independents fear the worst is in the future rather than the past.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted by Scott Rasmussen using a mixed mode approach from July 29-31, 2021. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Most respondents were contacted online or via text while 231 were contacted using automated phone polling techniques. Online respondents were selected from a list of Registered Voters and through a process of Random Digital Engagement. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
