PROVIDENCE – A survey conducted jointly by multiple universities across the country found that Rhode Islanders have decreased support for health mandates and progressively disapproved Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to where his rating in January was the lowest among all governors in New England.
Harvard University, Rutgers University, Northeastern University and Northwestern University’s “COVID State Project” survey gathers opinion-based data from across the country. Since April 2020 when the pandemic took hold, the survey regularly asks residents about their health behaviors during the pandemic, how much they support various mandates and how their elected executive leadership has handled the health crisis.
Facing the Holidays with a Cancer Diagnosis
The holidays are often painted as a time of joy, tradition, and togetherness. But for…
Learn More
According to the 367 Rhode Island-based respondents who took the survey between Dec. 22, 2021, and Jan. 24, 2021 – which was the height of the Omicron spike in the Ocean State and when Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott announced her resignation from leading the R.I. Department of Health – McKee garnered a 34.2% approval rating. By comparison, former governor and current U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo’s lowest rating per this survey was 53.8% in December 2020.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker’s approval rating in January, according to 455 Bay State residents who were surveyed, was 49%, third-best within New England. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott had the best rating in January among New England governors in this survey at 52%.
Also, as the weather got colder, so have both McKee and Baker’s respective approval ratings in handling the pandemic. McKee’s rating has dropped 29 percentage points since his high mark of 59% in June, per the survey, while Baker’s decreased by 19 percentage points from the 68.5% approval rating he got that month.
The survey shows decreasing support within Rhode Island for various COVID-19-related mandates. When asked in January about whether the state should require everyone to get a COVID-19 vaccine, 63.4% said yes. That is a 3.4% drop from what local residents said in November 2021 and a 10.4% decrease from June 2021, according to the survey.
Support has also dropped for requiring college students to get vaccinated in order to be back on campus. In June 2021 and September 2021, respectively – a time when colleges were mandating such vaccines – 72.3% and 72.4% of Rhode Islanders supported vaccine requirements for college students. In January, however, that support has decreased to 67.3%.
Regarding vaccine requirements to get on an airplane, support in Rhode Island for that dropped from 78% in June 2021 to 68.9% last month, the survey says. Surveyed Rhode Islanders, per the study, also have shown lesser support on requiring children to be vaccinated in order to be allowed in school, going from 65.8% in June to 62.4% last month. In November 2021, 59.6% of surveyed Rhode Islanders supported vaccinations for children to go to school.
Also, Rhode Island’s support for President Joe Biden has dropped by close to half since the summer. The survey showed that the current president’s support in the Ocean State, based on the respondents’ answers, has decreased from 60.2% in June 2021 to 35.2% last month.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
