A majority of Americans say in new polling that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is still ahead of us.
Fifty-four percent of respondents said that “the worst is still ahead of us,” compared to 46 percent who said “the worst is behind us” in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Harris poll released Monday.
The poll was first reported by Axios.
The number represents a stark decline in just the past few weeks in the number of Americans who believe the worst days of the pandemic are over.
At the beginning of July, 70 percent of respondents told Harris that the worst of the pandemic was behind us. But last week, 56 percent said the same thing and the polling company attributed the 14 point drop to the surge of the delta variant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) backtracked its mask guidance last month to advise that even fully vaccinated Americans should wear masks in certain indoor settings in areas of “substantial” or “high” risks of transmission.
Concerns about the variant have caused some areas to reimpose mask mandates. However, experts say that those who are unvaccinated remain at much higher risk of infection and severe disease.
Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema told Axios “it’s clear we are still far from ‘Mission Accomplished’ on COVID.”
Seventy-six percent of respondents in Monday’s poll said they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the delta variant, compared to 24 percent who were “not at all” or “not too concerned.”
The poll was conducted online from July 30-Aug. 1 among a sample of 2,026 adults. It does not list a margin of sampling error.