Opposition to U.S. school vaccine mandates rose during pandemic

Opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates that became increasingly political during the pandemic appears to have spilled over to inoculations long required for school children in the United States, with many more adults now against them, according to a new survey.
Nearly three in 10 adults (28%) said parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey. That was up from 16% in a 2019 Pew Research Center poll conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, KFF researchers said.
Among parents of children under age 18, 35% oppose requiring those childhood vaccines, up from 23% in 2019, KFF found.
“School vaccine mandates are a public health tool that works, is safe, and increases vaccination rates to keep whole communities safe,” said Dr. David Ratner, a pediatric infectious diseases expert from New York University Grossman School of Medicine, who was not involved in the survey. “We’re at risk of
losing that tool if this trend continues.”