After years of steady decline, support for childhood vaccinations has dropped dramatically in the past five years, a new Gallup poll found.
The poll, taken in July, found that 40% of Americans believe it’s “extremely important” for parents to vaccinate their kids, according to data released on Aug. 7.
This is a 23-year low, Gallup said, down 18% since 2019 and 24% since 2001.
More adults are also saying childhood vaccines are “not very important” or “not at all important,” according to Gallup.
In 2001, 1% of Americans said vaccinating kids wasn’t important at all. Now, that number is up to 7%.
An additional 17% of Americans said vaccines for kids were only “somewhat important,” the poll found.
Fewer Americans today consider childhood vaccines important, with 40% saying it is extremely important for parents to have their children vaccinated, down from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001.
There has been a similar decline in the combined “extremely” and “very important”… pic.twitter.com/dZVAdXWzRl
— Gallup (@Gallup) August 7, 2024
Republicans leading the change
The decline in support is limited almost entirely to self-declared Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, Gallup found, as the views of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents has changed 3% over two decades.
Conservatives, however, have cut their support nearly in half.
In 2001, Republicans and Republican “leaners” were just 4% behind Democrats as 62% said vaccinating kids was “extremely important.”
In 2019, support was down to 52%, but was still in line with a similar decline in Democratic support at 59%, according to the data.
But in the past five years, that support has been slashed nearly in half.
Only 26% of right-leaning Americans say vaccinating children is extremely important, creating a 37-point gap with left-leaners, who are at 63%, according to the poll.
Additionally, 11% of Republicans and Republican-learners “do not think it is important at all for children to be vaccinated,” Gallup said.
Parents of both parties have also changed their tune, the data shows. Only 29% of parents with kids under the age of 18 said it’s extremely important, down from 54% in 2019.
Realities of vaccine information remains steady
“Even as Americans have become less likely to believe children should be vaccinated, there has been no change since 2019 in the percentage of those who say they have heard about the advantages of childhood vaccinations,” Gallup said. “In the past five years, there has also been a decline in the percentage who have heard about possible disadvantages of vaccines.”
Both Republicans and Democrats said they have heard more positives than negatives to vaccinating children, with both parties saying they have heard less about possible disadvantages lately than they did in 2019.
Where the parties diverge is when asked if they believe the vaccines are actually more dangerous than the diseases they are meant to protect against, Gallup said.
Democrats have remained steady since 2001, with 5% saying vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent.
Republicans, however, were at 6% in 2001, then jumped to 12% in 2019 before a major leap to 31% today, according to the data.
Republicans are also much more likely to believe the widely discredited and rebuked claim that vaccines in childhood can lead to autism, Gallup said.
While the majority of Democrats say they know vaccines don’t cause autism, the majority of Republicans, 61%, said they are unsure.
Anti-vaccine rhetoric and COVID-19
“Republicans’ confidence in childhood vaccines has plunged over the past five years, resulting in a significant decline in Americans’ overall belief that these vaccines are important,” Gallup said. “… This political divide reflected the tendency for Democratic elected officials and party supporters to follow guidance on COVID-19 provided by medical authorities, while Republican elected officials and Republican identifiers were often skeptical of the reliability of that information.”
Gallup said those sentiments have now trickled down to other medical information and the field of science in general, in this case kids’ vaccines.
Currently, 38 vaccines are recommended as part of the immunization schedule from birth until the age of 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This now includes shots for COVID-19 and RSV.
A poll from POLITICO in fall 2023 found similar results, and attributed the sentiment among Republicans to former President Donald Trump’s anti-vaccine rhetoric surrounding mandates in public schools and as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tries to attract anti-vaccine Trump voters to his political camp.
At a rally in June, Trump said he would defund any public school with COVID-19 vaccine or mask mandates, POLITICO reported. Trump, and the former first lady, have both been vaccinated.
Project 2025, a far-right agenda proposed for a second Trump presidency and which Trump has not publicly endorsed, also recommends breaking up the CDC, the agency responsible for making vaccine recommendations for both children and adults.
“All U.S. states have immunization requirements for students, though most provide exemptions for medical or religious reasons, and some for philosophical reasons. While Gallup trends show such policies were widely supported in the past, only a slim majority of Americans today believe the government should require all parents to vaccinate their children,” Gallup said.
The Biden-Harris Administration, alternatively, moved to require COVID-19 vaccinations for government employees in 2023, and President Joe Biden received the vaccine and a booster on camera while urging Americans to do the same.
In 2021, Biden said COVID-19 vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11 were “a giant step forward,” and offered “relief and celebration” for parents, CNN reported.
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(c) 2024 the Merced Sun-Star
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