(CNN) Poll of the week: A new Axios/Ipsos poll finds that 67% of American adults have either gotten a Covid-19 vaccine or will get it as soon as possible. The same poll shows on a separate question that 75% of respondents said they either had gotten the vaccine or were likely to get it.
Both of these were all-time highs in Ipsos polling.
What's the point: The Covid-19 pandemic has been horrible. Hundreds are still dying daily because of the coronavirus. Things are still not back to normal.
But if we're looking at the data, it's pretty clear that there are a lot of reasons for optimism.
Over the last month, it seemed that we were hitting a vaccine wall. Most of the people who wanted a vaccine had received one, as supplies became far more plentiful. Every day from April 14 through May 9 had fewer people receiving a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine than seven days previous, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The polling data, too, seemed to indicate a stall in people wanting a vaccine during much of April.
On Monday of last week, however, more people received a first dose than on the previous Monday. We followed it up on Tuesday with more people getting a first dose than on the prior Tuesday. From the Sunday to Wednesday time period (before 12- to 15-year-olds officially became eligible for one of the vaccines), the US gained about 87,000 vaccinations compared to the rate over the same period from the week before.
These new vaccinations come on top of the polling data gains previously discussed. The US seems to be moving slowly forward in our vaccination campaign.
It seems likely that some people who were vaccine hesitant (i.e. not against vaccinating but unsure if they actually would) are actually getting a shot. The percentage of vaccine hesitant is at its all time low (14%) in the Ipsos data. This comes on top of a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted at the end of last month where the percent of vaccine hesitant respondents was also at its lowest level (15%) in their polling.
What's more is that the current rate of vaccination can be categorized as solid. When President Joe Biden set a goal for 70% of adults to receive at least one dose by July 4, a little over 56% of adults had received a vaccine. As of Saturday evening, nearly 60% of adults had.
As long as we keep up with anywhere close to the same number of adults getting vaccinated a day, we should reach Biden's goal and then some.
It's important to keep in mind that the increase in vaccinations is coming at a time when other metrics look good as well.
The number of new cases of Covid-19 per day is down to its lowest point since the end of last summer. The number of hospitalizations is nearing its lowest point of the entire pandemic. And perhaps most importantly, the number of deaths is at its lowest point since the beginning of last summer.
But we shouldn't just be looking at a person's physical state to understand their well being. Their mental state is important too. The news there is also good.
A lower share of the population (14%) than since the pandemic began said their emotional well being was worse this week than last week, according to the Ipsos poll. And for the first time in the pandemic era, more people said mental health had improved than gotten worse in the last week.
Part of the reason our mental health may be improving is that Americans are going out and gathering with friends more than they have at any other point in the pandemic. The fact that Americans are doing less social distancing and yet illness rates are falling is also perhaps the ultimate sign that America's vaccination campaign is working.
I noted a few weeks ago that more Americans are dining out at restaurants than at any point in the pandemic. More people are also flying at any point in the pandemic relative to the same point in 2019.
The Ipsos poll found that more Americans visited friends in the last week (59%), which is the highest of the pandemic. The percentage of Americans in the last week wearing a mask at all times outside (58%) is at its lowest level since last June, before mask wearing was commonplace. The fact that we're still seeing case declines with lower mask wearing is a very good sign. Recent masking declines have been driven by vaccinated people being more willing to unmask when going out.
All of this data demonstrates why it's so important that we keep up the vaccination campaign. If we do so, we'll be able to safely do more and more of the activities we enjoy.