Today, fewer U.S. adults say it is important to vaccinate children than in recent years, according to a Gallup poll published Wednesday.
In the July surveyJust 40 percent of U.S. adults said it is “extremely important” for parents to vaccinate their children, a sharp decline from the 58 percent who said the same in 2019 and the 64 percent who said the same in 2001. .
The drop over the past two decades is equally sharp when monitoring the combined percentage who said vaccinating children is “extremely” or “very” important. Collectively, 69 percent of U.S. adults now hold this opinion, down from 84 percent in 2019 and 94 percent in 2001.
The drop in the perceived importance of childhood vaccinations is driven largely by Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
In the recent poll, just 26% of Republicans and Republican-leaning people said it is “extremely important” to vaccinate children — half the 52% who said the same in 2019 and 2015.
Among Democrats and Today’s Democrats, 63 percent said childhood vaccinations are “extremely important,” similar to the 67 percent who said the same in 2019 and the 59 percent who said the same in 2015.
The drop represents a dramatic polarization of the issue in recent years.
In 2001, the perceived importance of childhood vaccinations was similar across ideological groups, with 66 percent of Democrats/Democrat-leaning saying that childhood vaccinations were “extremely important” and 62 percent of Republicans/Republican-leaning to say the same.
Both groups fell slightly in 2015, but since then, the two groups have diverged.
The new poll numbers come as experts warn of the dangers of rising vaccine skepticism.
Earlier this year, at least 8,500 U.S. schools had vaccination rates among kindergarten students below 95%, according to one study. CBS News investigationwhich the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a standard necessity to keep students and the community safe.
Meanwhile, diseases once thought to be eradicated are now emerging in children across the country. Last year in Ohio, for example, 85 children, more than 90% of whom were unvaccinated, were diagnosed with measles. None died, but almost half were hospitalized. Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia have also seen outbreaks as the disease surges globally.
The survey included telephone interviews conducted from July 1 to 21 with 1,010 adults. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
