More than one-third of American parents oppose mandatory vaccine requirements in schools, according to a survey published on December 16 by the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation.
Notably, the rate reflects an increase compared to the period preceding the pandemic. In 2019, the Pew Research Center published a poll showing that less than a quarter (23%) of parents opposed vaccine requirements in schools. This compares to 35% in the new KFF survey.
Across the country, all 50 states and the District of Columbia mandate vaccination against certain diseases – like measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) – to attend public school. In rare instances, exemptions are granted.
A recent high-profile measles outbreak in central Ohio has brought the vaccination mandate discussion back to the forefront. As of December 15, 77 children were verified to have contracted measles in the region, with a third of those hospitalized, according to Columbus Public Health. The majority were reportedly unvaccinated against the virus.
Dr. Nora Colburn, an adult infectious diseases physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, believes “a lack of vaccination” is driving the current surge.
Due to the highly contagious nature of measles, Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases and professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado says it is crucial to “maintain a high vaccination coverage to keep measles from spreading.”
While confidence in the MMR vaccine’s effectiveness has remained high, according to the KFF survey, support for mandatory vaccinations has dropped since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest survey from KFF, conducted between November 29 and December 8, also revealed a growing rift between Democrats and Republicans on the subject.
Immediately before the pandemic, roughly 20% of Republicans said parents should be free to opt their children out of vaccination. Since then, that rate has more than doubled to 44%. Democrats, on the other hand, have consistently maintained an over 85% support rate for mandatory public-school vaccination.
Last month, Republican State Representative Brian Harrison of Waxahachie filed a bill to make permanent Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order banning state and local school boards from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for Texas students. The bill would not affect other mandatory immunizations in the state.
Democratic State Senator Nathan Johnson of Dallas called Harrison’s bill ”a spectacularly bad idea.”
As of December 15, 67.5% of Texas residents over the age of 5 have received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. This compares to 73% nationally.
All of the vaccine ‘encouragement’ from our local corporate media outlets seems to have waned. (pun intended)
Along with those outlets’ already wavering credibility?
Such a compelling business model to repeatedly chant the well ingested official story line and then to abruptly shift on to the next current thing once the ostensibly forgotten previous narrative begins to disintegrate.