Even MAGAs agree...so why is Bobby Junior trying to kill vaccinations?
A new poll shows that 79% of US adults support requiring children to be vaccinated against preventable infectious diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella to attend school, with even two thirds of Republicans and those who support the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement agreeing with such measures.
The poll of
2,509 adults, conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
and the de Beaumont Foundation, also found that, among the 21% who don't
support school vaccine mandates, their reasoning focused more on parental
choice than on safety concerns.
The poll was conducted from March 10 to March 31 among a representative sampling. It has a margin of error for the entire sample of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Broad support across the political spectrum
The poll found that 90% of Democrats, 68% of Republicans,
and 66% of MAGA supporters agreed with the statement, "Parents should be
required to have their children vaccinated against preventable diseases to
attend school." Seventy-two percent of parents or guardians felt the same
way.
Among the 79% who support routine childhood vaccine
requirements, 90% cited vaccine effectiveness, and 87% noted family
responsibilities to keep schools safe as major reasons.
Childhood vaccine requirements are less controversial
than many people may think.
Other major reasons include respondents thinking diseases
like measles will come back if vaccines are no longer required (84%),
requirements are important to protect children who cannot get vaccinated for
medical reasons (81%), and routine vaccines have been proven safe because they
are well-tested (80%) and have been around so long (76%).
Fewer of those who support requirements—49%—say trust in
government agencies that approve routine childhood vaccines is a major
reason.
"Childhood vaccine requirements are less controversial
than many people may think," said Brian Castrucci, DrPH, president and CEO
of the de Beaumont Foundation, in a Harvard news release.
"This poll shows that they're widely supported across political groups—and
it's heartening to see that so many Americans understand the importance of
vaccination, which remains a fundamental pillar of public health and disease
prevention."
Strong belief in vaccine safety
Despite recent efforts by federal officials like Health and
Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to sow mistrust in vaccines, the
poll revealed that 91% of US adults believe that routine childhood
immunizations are safe for most children.
This includes 63% who believe vaccines are very safe and 28%
who believe they are somewhat safe. Only 5% and 4% believe they are not very
safe or not at all safe, respectively.
Belief in vaccines safety is high across the political
spectrum, with 97% of Democrats, 88% of Republicans, and 84% of MAGA supporters
expressing that opinion. Likewise, 88% of parents believe routine vaccines for
children are safe.
A political divide does appear, however, when looking at
those who deem vaccines to be "very safe." Only 51% of Republicans
and 47% of MAGA enthusiasts held that opinion, compared with 80% of Democrats.
Parental choice key among dissenters
Among the 21% of polled adults who say they don't support
vaccine requirements, 79% say a major reason for their stance is that they
think it should be the parents' choice whether or not to vaccinate their child.
Other reasons for opposing vaccine mandates: 66% of
respondents think government agencies who enforce vaccine requirements are
influenced too much by politics and big companies, 64% worry that children
might be required to get too many vaccines in the future, and 54% believe that
vaccine requirements pad vaccine makers' pockets.
Concern over vaccine safety, in contrast, was cited as a
major reason by just 40% of those who oppose routine childhood vaccine
requirements.
These reasons take on new meaning amid a nationwide measles outbreak that has now topped 1,200 confirmed cases, threatening the nation's status of having eliminated the disease, which it achieved in 2000.
"Public opposition to childhood vaccine policies is
often more about parental rights than vaccine safety," said survey lead
Gillian SteelFisher, PhD, director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program and
principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School.
"As the country leans on vaccine policies to help
address its largest measles outbreak in decades, public health leaders need to
be prepared to bring empathy to conversations that go beyond just trying to
convince people vaccines are safe."