The Real Reason Behind Conservatives ’ Shifting Views on Childhood Vaccines

In a new study released by Pew Research Center, the percentage of Republicans who said parents should be able to forego the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine for their public school children, even if it may create a health risk for others, more than doubled from 20% in 2019 to 42% in 2023. White evangelical Protestants showed a nearly identical pattern with the percentage supporting parents’ decision not to vaccinate their children despite the health risk to others doubling from 20% to 40%. This is obviously concerning. Measles cases in the U.S. spiked in 2019 to levels we hadn’t seen in decades. Studies showed this was tied to growing vaccine hesitancy, much of which was due to (sometimes deliberate) misinformation about the connection between childhood vaccines and autism. So why just after a decades-high measles spike would we see conservatives even more enthusiastic about normalizing reluctance to vaccinate children? [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Several reasonable explanations immediately jump out from the study. Pew shows there’s a strong connection between skepticism over the COVID-19 vaccines and childhood MMR vaccines. And America’s siloed media landscape has played a demonstrable role in fomenting skepticism toward even those vaccines that have proven safe and effective for decades like the MMR shot. But what ties these factors together isn’t primarily scientific ignorance about the effectiveness or safety of such...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized freelance health Source Type: news