Trust In Vaccines—Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

Lately, the talking point in the media and elsewhere has been that people don’t trust vaccines and don’t support school requirements. Recent polling begs to differ.

A recent poll from KFF revealed 54% of adults who were aware of recent changes to the childhood vaccine schedule believe additional changes will have a negative impact upon children’s health. Only 26% believed these changes would positively impact children’s health. And, while there is a partisan split, fewer than half of Republicans think changes to the schedule will bring about positive outcomes.

The KFF poll also revealed:

• >80% of U.S. adults are confident or very confident in the safety of measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), and polio vaccines
• 65% of adults were confident or very confident in the safety of seasonal flu vaccines
• 70% of adults were confident or very confident in the safety of hepatitis B vaccine
• Just under half of adults were confident in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines but 25% of those were very confident in their safety (but there’s a large partisan split with 30% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats confident that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for children)

Looking for a resource on who people trust for health information? Check out KFF’s new interactive dashboard.

Fabrizio Ward released a report on December 3, 2025, detailing the results of their November 2025 poll of 1,000 voters in the 35 most competitive Congressional districts on their attitudes toward vaccine recommendations.

Their findings:

• Strong bipartisan support for routine childhood vaccines
• Majorities, regardless of political party, acknowledged safety and benefits of vaccines
• Skepticism toward vaccine requirements is “politically risky”
• Overall negative opinion of removal of vaccine recommendations
• Vaccine skepticism is rejected by most voters
• More than 70% of voters believe benefits of common vaccines outweigh the risks
• 86% of voters believe vaccines save lives
• 82% of parents report immunizing their children based on their healthcare provider’s recommendations

You can find the full report here.