Poll Finds Support for Vaccines Falls

Attitudes about the positive benefit of vaccinations have dropped 16 points over the past 10 years, a precipitous drop that is also reflected by an 11-point decrease in the belief that it's "very important" for children to be vaccinated, according to a poll published by Research America.

The results, according to Zogby Analytics, who conducted the survey on behalf of Research America:

• 70 percent say vaccinations are "very important" to the health of society, a 10-point drop since 2008.
• 59 percent believe they have benefited from vaccines, down 16 points from 2008.
• 71 percent said it's "very important" to have their children vaccinated, down 11 points from 2008.
• 7 percent said it's not important to have their children vaccinated.
• 28 percent said it should be up to parents to decide whether to vaccinate their child.

While 81 percent believe that not vaccinating children puts other children at risk, 13 percent disagree that not vaccinating puts others at risk, according to the survey.

Perhaps the most telling stat in the survey is the sources of information used to get educated about vaccines (check all that apply):

• 54 percent of people use the media for information about vaccines.
• 45 percent go online or to the internet to learn about vaccines.
• 41 percent get it from their doctor or healthcare provider.
• 36 percent use social media.

This nationwide online survey was conducted by Zogby Analytics on behalf of Research America in May 2018 among 1,004 adults in the U.S. This survey has a theoretical sampling error of 3.1 percentage points.

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