For some, it means going back to pre-pandemic life, without mask mandates, vaccine requirements or other public health measures to contain the spread of the virus. But that’s not what it means to most, according to a Feb. 4-7 Axios/Ipsos poll, in which just 21 percent of Americans said we should “get back to life as usual with no coronavirus mandates or requirements.” To be sure, 29 percent thought we should move toward that goal with some precautions, while 23 percent wanted to mostly keep precautions in place and 21 percent wanted to increase precautions. Part of the reason opinion is so divided is that Americans are simultaneously ready and not-ready to go back to pre-pandemic life. Over three-quarters of Americans said they were “ready to return to normal”, according to a Feb. 12-15 poll from The Economist/YouGov. And yet the Axios/Ipsos poll showed that 54 percent thought doing so posed a large or moderate risk…

And Americans seem to be OK with being more cautious in their personal decisions. That is, they’re more willing to undergo measures like mask-wearing or vaccinations for themselves, though they may not want to institute it as a requirement. According to a Jan. 24-30 poll from the Pew Research Center, 73 percent of Americans were fully vaccinated, but just 58 percent supported requiring proof of vaccination to fly. And Americans were even less supportive of requiring vaccines for the four other activities Pew asked about — attending a sporting event or concert (53 percent), going to college in-person (52 percent), eating inside a restaurant (46 percent) and shopping inside a store (40 percent). In fact, overall support for vaccine mandates may be declining. Americans were 3 to 5 percentage points more supportive of requiring vaccines for these activities when Pew polled about this in August 2021.