More boosters, more variants, but less concern: Americans face future of COVID pandemic

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Two years in, Americans’ concern about COVID-19 has dropped to its lowest level since the CBS News poll started tracking it in the spring of 2020, but they aren’t ready to say the pandemic is over. Most foresee a lasting vigilance, including a need for more booster shots, and most expect more variants down the road, albeit less dangerous ones. Few feel the virus will disappear entirely in the coming year.

On a personal level, many say the pandemic has left lasting changes in their own lives, both in how they live and how they work. CONTINUED

Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto & Fred Backus, CBS News

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More Americans Than Ever Support LGBTQ Discrimination Protection Laws, Even as Legislative Efforts Opposing Them Proliferate

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More Americans than ever now support rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals (LGBTQ), according to a large new survey of more than 22,000 adults conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). The survey, which contains findings for all 50 states, is the latest in PRRI’s American Values Atlas project, a seven-year tracking survey measuring Americans’ support for LGBTQ rights policies at the state level since 2015.

“This massive 50-state study brings into sharp focus the contradiction between increasing support for LGBTQ rights, including rights for transgender Americans, and the proliferation of laws seeking to restrict or abolish those rights over the last year,” said Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., founder and CEO of PRRI. CONTINUED

Public Religion Research Institute

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More support than oppose Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, with many not sure

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As the U.S. Senate is set to begin confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, 44% of the public says the Senate should definitely (24%) or probably (20%) confirm Jackson, while just 18% say she should not be confirmed. Nearly four-in-ten (38%) say they are unsure. …

About six-in-ten U.S. adults think Jackson is about as qualified as other recent Supreme Court justice nominees, while 17% say she is more qualified and an identical share say she is less qualified than other recent nominees. CONTINUED

Amina Dunn, Pew Research Center

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Americans Still Pro-Israel, Though Palestinians Gain Support

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Americans continue to express greater sympathy for the Israelis than the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict, as they have throughout Gallup’s trend — 55% now sympathize more with the Israelis and 26% with the Palestinians.

While still wide, Israel’s advantage on this question has narrowed over the past decade (since 2013) as sympathy for the Palestinians has edged higher. At the same time, sympathy for Israel has diminished slightly. CONTINUED

Lydia Saad, Gallup

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What did Democrats deliver?

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According to a recent story in The New York Times, in a meeting with the president last month to discuss the party’s messaging, Speaker Nancy Pelosi came armed with an alternate slogan to replace the “Build Back Better” phrase, which some Democrats call “toxic” these days. Pelosi’s substitute? One of the worst political slogans in recent memory — “Democrats Deliver,” which the Times reported had tested at the bottom of a list of potential messages.

One can only wonder whether anyone on her team raised the obvious follow-on question, “Deliver what?” It’s just too easy. CONTINUED

David Winston (Winston Group), Roll Call

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Gas Prices and Presidential Approval

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Key Points
• President Joe Biden and his party are struggling amidst myriad challenges, including high gas prices. Gas prices have spiked in recent weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• There is some association between higher gas prices and lower presidential approval, although the connection is not particularly strong.
• This association has been weaker over the past decade than it was previously. CONTINUED

Kyle Kondik, Sabato’s Crystal Ball

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