The pandemic’s focus on vaccines may have had a big downside: While kids have long been required to get certain shots to attend public school, a growing number of their parents now oppose these requirements, a new poll finds.
About 35% of parents now say childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella should not be mandatory, up from 23% in 2019. Overall, 28% of adults nationwide say parents should be able to say no to vaccinating their children for measles, mumps and rubella.
The new shift in opinion can be largely attributed to political position, Kaiser researchers said.
More than 4 in 10 respondents who identified as Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they oppose public school vaccine requirements, up from 20% in 2019 before COVID vaccine controversies took hold.
About 88% of Democrats said they support public school vaccine requirements, up 2%.
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But those views on school requirements didn’t line up with the public’s view of the value of vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), the survey found.
About 85% of the public overall and 80% of parents said the benefits of MMR shots outweigh the risks.
Even among respondents who said they were not vaccinated for COVID-19, about 70% said the benefits of childhood vaccines outweighed the risks.
