A new poll found that one in six parents has either skipped or delayed vaccinating their children against various diseases, with some being twice as likely to be against the shots.
The findings of the poll showed that 16% of parents are not having their kids vaccinated against diseases other than COVID-19 or the flu. It also found that white parents, Republicans, the religious, and those who homeschool their children are more likely to avoid vaccinations.
Childhood Vaccination Rates
Additionally, American parents who homeschool their kids at home and those who consider themselves to be extremely religious were found to be the most likely to delay their children's vaccinations. The poll found taht 46% and 36%, respectively, decided to forego inoculations for their young ones.
Parents who identify as Republicans were found to be roughly twice as likely to skip or delay getting the vaccines for their kids. Another finding was that white Americans are almost four times as likely to skip or delay getting their children vaccinated compared to Asian Americans, according to The Hill.
Other polls found that there are fewer children getting vaccinated in the United States, with one in early August showing that 92.5% of kindergarteners were vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, and polio. It also found that 92.1% were vaccinated against DTap, all of which were during the 2024-25 school year.
This data shows a decrease from the rates seen in the 2019-20 school year, where 95% of children received the MMR, polio, and DTap vaccines. The development comes as public health experts typically recommend vaccination rates of 95% to protect communities from the transmission of diseases.
The majority of parents who decided to skip or delay vaccination of their kids cited concerns of potential side effects and lack of confidence in federal health authorities to ensure their safety, France24 reported.
Potential Fatal Consequences
Around 9% also opted out of getting the polio or MMR vaccines for their children, which is a trend that many public health experts warn could trigger a widespread return of potentially fatal diseases that have been largely wiped out by routine childhood vaccination.
A separate analysis, conducted with the help of Stanford University, found that since 2019, 77% of counties and jurisdictions in the U.S. reported notable declines in vaccination rates among kids. These span from less than one percentage point to more than 40 percentage points.
Nationwide, vaccine exemptions for school children are on the rise, with as many as 53% of counties and jurisdictions seeing rates more than double compared to their first year of collecting data to the most recent, as per NBC News.
