With vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. scheduled to testify at his Senate confirmation hearings for Health and Human Services secretary this week, a new poll finds most Americans support school vaccination requirements.
About seven in 10 adults (73%) favor a mandatory policy for parents to vaccinate their children against the preventable diseases of measles, mumps and rubella, according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center survey from earlier this month.
The new poll found support for preventable disease vaccine requirements was strongest among Democrats (86%) and lowest among Republicans (62%) with independents falling in between (72%). In 2019, 77% of all U.S. adults supported mandatory vaccines for preventable diseases in children.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, support for state vaccination requirements for students to attend school has fallen, with 52% saying they favor them in 2024 compared with 71% favoring them in 2019.
About one-fifth of adults (21%) in this year’s survey say parents should be able to decide if they vaccinate their children who attend public schools, even if that decision creates health risks for other children.
More adults support states giving parents more choice to opt out of school vaccination requirements for medical, religious or personal reasons. The survey found 63% of adults either somewhat or strongly support laws allowing parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for medical reasons and 25% oppose it. In 2019, 46% opposed such a plan.
Since COVID, support for parents’ ability to choose whether to vaccinate their children for personal reasons doubled to 35% compared, with 17% supporting such a policy in 2019.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services oversees the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that most states follow. The CDC currently recommends that children be vaccinated against chickenpox, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.