Just 40% of U.S. adults said childhood vaccines are important, a marked decline from those who said the same thing 20 years ago, a Gallup poll released Wednesday found.
According to the nationwide survey of 1,010 adults taken July 1-21, those who said it is "extremely important" for parents to get their children vaccinated fell from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
When tracking the combined percentage of those who said vaccinating children is either extremely or very important, the drop-off is equally as steep. The poll found that 69% said it is either extremely or very important to vaccinate children, which is down from 84% in 2019 and 94% in 2001.
Gallup found that the decline in perceived importance of childhood vaccines is largely because of the changing views of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
Only 26% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said it is extremely important to get children vaccinated. That figure was 52% in 2019 and 2015.
Among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, 63% said vaccinating children is extremely important, which is similar to the 67% in 2019 and the 59% in 2015.
In recent years, the issue of childhood vaccination has become increasingly polarized.
The perceived importance of childhood vaccines was similar across the political spectrum in 2001, with 66% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents saying the immunizations were extremely important, with 62% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents agreeing.
By 2015, both groups had fallen, but have since diverged.
The new survey comes as a CBS News investigation earlier this year found that at least 8,500 schools in the U.S. had kindergarten vaccination rates below 95%. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers 95% as the necessary threshold to keep students safe and prevent community transmission the investigation showed.
Once thought to be eradicated, outbreaks of diseases such as measles are becoming more common. In Ohio last year, 85 children — more than 90% of whom were not vaccinated — contracted measles, with half requiring hospitalization. Outbreaks have also occurred in Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.