More than half of U.S. dog owners harbor skepticism over vaccinating their dogs — including for rabies — according to a new study that was released over the weekend.
The study, published in the journal Vaccine on Saturday, found that "canine vaccine hesitancy" ("CVH") rose to 53% of dog owners in the U.S. The study's authors define CVH as having doubts about the safety, efficacy, and/or need to vaccinate their dogs, and 53% of owners "endorse at least one of these three positions," per the study.
In fact, the study found that the 37% of respondents who said canine vaccines were unsafe feared the vaccine could cause autism in their dogs, long ago debunked as a theory in humans.
"CVH is problematic not only because it may inspire vaccine refusal — which may in turn facilitate infectious disease spread in both canine and human populations — but because it may contribute to veterinary care provider mental/physical health risks," the authors wrote.
One of the authors, political scientist Matt Motta of Boston University's School of Public Health, told Bloomberg that CVH is linked directly to the vaccination fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"What this demonstrates is that COVID fundamentally changed how Americans look at vaccines," Motta told Bloomberg.
Of the 2,200 U.S. adults surveyed for the study, 22% said dog vaccinations were ineffective and 30% said they were unnecessary.