Public support for vaccines has dropped 10% since 2008
May 27, 2018
Support for vaccinations among Americans has fallen 10 percent in the last 10 years, a new survey has found. Most Americans, especially children, get recommended vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the number who are confident in their importance has decreased.
About 70 percent said common vaccines, such as for polio and measles, are 'very important', found the poll from Research America and the American Society for Microbiology. This is down from 80 percent who gave the same answer in November 2008. Additionally, only 71 percent of participants said it was 'very important' to have their children vaccinated, a drop from 82 percent in 2008.
When those surveyed were asked how confident they were in the current system for evaluating the safety of vaccines and recommendations for when they should be given, 45 percent said they were 'somewhat confident' and 32 percent said 'very confident'. While the number of those 'very confident' remained the same from 2008, it fell for those 'somewhat confident', which had stood at 53 percent.
Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research America, said she doesn't see the results as evidence that people opposing vaccines but rather that they have doubts and questions about them. According to the CDC, more than 90 percent of children under age three have been vaccinated for polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), Hepatitis B and chicken pox.
And more than 80 percent have received Haemophilus influenzae, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and pneumococcal infection vaccines. However, mounting distrust has led some parents to not immunize their children, in turn leading to outbreaks of diseases not seen in years, such as measles, whooping cough and mumps.