Voters in battleground states support making Covid-19 vaccines and treatment free for all Americans, a new poll found, indicating the public favors more aggressive actions to contain costs during the pandemic. | Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

New polling shows voters are ready for aggressive actions on prescription drug prices.

America’s long-running debate over prescription drug prices feels more urgent than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most people are rooting for the US drug industry — self-styled, and not without reason, as the most innovative in the world — to develop a vaccine or a cure for the disease that has taken more than 160,000 American lives. But the hope is tempered by an unavoidable fear in the country with the world’s highest medical prices: Will it be affordable?

“In a sense, this is the whole drug pricing dilemma in one act,” Larry Levitt,