MAGA and MAHA Parents Are More Likely Than Others To Think the CDC Was Recommending Too Many Childhood Vaccines
On Monday, federal health officials announced a major change to the U.S. childhood immunization schedule. Adding to other recent changes, officials have cut back the number of vaccines universally recommended for U.S. children and infants despite evidence backing their safety and effectiveness. Among the changes, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has narrowed recommendations for childhood vaccines against COVID-19, the flu, hepatitis A and hepatitis B, among others. The changes reflect the Trump administration and Secretary Kennedy’s latest attempts to overhaul U.S. vaccine policy.
Secretary Kennedy’s efforts to narrow the childhood vaccine schedule do not reflect the views of most parents, but KFF polling suggests it may have more appeal among President Trump’s base. KFF and The Washington Post’s Survey of Parents (fielded prior to the recent vaccine schedule changes) found that about a quarter (26%) of parents thought the CDC recommended “too many” childhood vaccines, while twice that share (52%) thought the CDC recommended “about the right amount” of vaccines for children. Another one in six (16%) parents expressed uncertainty, saying they were “not sure” about the agency’s recommendations.
While most parents weren’t critical of the number of childhood vaccines recommended in the U.S., the Trump administration’s recent changes to vaccine recommendations are more in line with the views of parents who make up President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s most ardent supporters: Republican supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement (18% of all parents) and supporters of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement (38% of all parents). Our Survey of Parents found that the share who said the CDC recommended “too many” childhood vaccines rose to four in ten among Republican parents (41%) and MAHA-supporting parents (42%), and about half of Republican MAGA-supporting parents (49%). However, even among these groups, skepticism toward the CDC’s prior vaccine recommendations was not universal: among Republican parents and MAHA supporting parents, similar shares said the CDC recommended “about the right amount” of vaccines as said the agency recommended “too many.”
Polarization regarding the childhood vaccine schedule reflects just one facet of broader vaccine skepticism among Republicans, whose trust in the CDC to provide reliable vaccine information plummeted over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic amid divisions over pandemic policies and skepticism of vaccine safety. Whether the recent overhaul of U.S. vaccine policy under Secretary Kennedy restores Republican trust in the CDC or further erodes trust among other groups, however, remains to be seen.