by Jameelah Mullen
August 10, 2024
More Republicans and Republican leaning independents don’t believe vaccines are necessary.
Fewer Americans today think that childhood vaccines are important, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The survey showed that 40 percent of parents think it’s “extremely important” for their children to get vaccinated —down from 58 percent in 2019 and 64 percent in 2001.
The poll, conducted between July 1 and July 21 also found that a growing number of adults in the U.S. say that vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they are created to prevent. In 2024, 20 percent deemed vaccines dangerous, nearly double the amount in 2019 (11 percent). Only six percent of Americans subscribed to this belief in 2001.
The study also found the decline in the belief of the importance of vaccines was mostly present amongst Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saw very little change in their beliefs since 2001.
In previous surveys, Republicans and Democrats had similar views on the risks and benefits of vaccines. The data indicated that the gap between Democrats and Republicans widened significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2020 Pew Research poll reported that 78 percent of Democrats considered the virus to be a major threat to health compared to 52 percent of Republicans.
“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,” the report said. “Now, those doubts appear to be extending to childhood vaccines that have long been used to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, as well as the field of science in general.”
Additionally, Americans are now less likely to say the government should require children to be vaccinated against contagious diseases. In 1991, over 80 percent of Americans favored vaccine requirements but today, only 51 percent support this view.
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