Public confidence in the safety of measles vaccines has declined in the United States, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The survey found that 76 percent of people in the U.S. consider the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine safe for children. That figure was 84 percent in a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May 2020. The latest poll surveyed 1,143 adults between Sept. 11 and Sept. 14, 2026.1
The poll also found that a bipartisan majority of Americans still support vaccinating children against measles, mumps and rubella. At the same time, the survey recorded a decline in confidence about vaccine safety. The decrease was particularly pronounced among respondents identifying as Republicans.2
Vaccination Rates Decline
In August 2026, Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccination data shows that 92.4 percent of U.S. kindergarteners had received the MMR vaccine during the 2025–26 school year. That compares with a 95 percent MMR vaccine coverage rate among kindergarteners in the 2019–20 school year before the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting a nationwide drop of 2.6 percent. Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the latest figure left approximately 280,000 kindergarteners without documented MMR vaccination.3
Kaiser Family Foundation also found differences among states. During the 2025–26 school year, 39 states had MMR vaccination rates below 95 percent, while 18 states reported rates below 90 percent. Before the pandemic, 28 states had rates below 95 percent and three had rates below 90 percent. They noted that vaccination coverage also varied substantially between states, ranging from 75.2 percent in Idaho to 98.9 percent in West Virginia.4
The number of kindergarteners receiving medical, religious or conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination from one or more required vaccines has also increased. Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the national exemption rate rose from 2.5 percent in the 2019–20 school year to 4.2 percent in 2025–26, the highest national exemption rate recorded in its analysis. Exemptions for personal beliefs, rather than medical exemptions, accounted for most of the vaccine exemption increases, rising from 2.2 percent to 4 percent during that period.5
The Reuters/Ipsos findings and Kaiser Family Foundation data describe two developments occurring at the same time: fewer Americans report confidence in the safety of the MMR vaccine than in 2020, while kindergarten MMR vaccination coverage has remained below the 95 percent target in recent years. The data document these trends but do not establish that changes in public confidence caused changes in MMR vaccination rates.6 7
Parents Seek Alternative Health Care Options
Some parents with concerns about childhood vaccines are choosing health care providers who allow parents to delay or spread out vaccinations or do not require children to receive vaccines as a condition of receiving medical care. Online communities have helped parents identify medical practices described as “vaccine friendly” or “vaccine neutral.”
These health care providers do not all follow the same approach. Some offer vaccines while allowing parents to delay them, and others continue to provide medical care for families who choose not to vaccinate. Some parents are changing providers after doctors require vaccinations as a condition of receiving medical care.8
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Click here to view References:1 Lange J, Abutaleb Y. Trust in measles vaccines falls in US, Reuters Ipsos poll finds. Reuters Sept. 15, 2026.
2 Ibid.
3 Williams E et al. Kindergarten Routine Vaccination Rates Continue to Decline. KFF Aug. 21. 2026.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Lange J, Abutaleb Y. Trust in measles vaccines falls in US, Reuters Ipsos poll finds. Reuters Sept. 15, 2026.
7 Williams E et al. Kindergarten Routine Vaccination Rates Continue to Decline. KFF Aug. 21. 2026.
8 Rodriguez B. As parents seek out ‘vaccine friendly’ clinics, pediatricians worry about eroding trust. 19th News Apr. 7, 2026.
4 Responses
About fricking time.
Drug companies have pushed the politicization of science into something like Scientism. As a result of this many people on the left have rejected scientific evidence that challenges the safe and effective narrative even while claiming to ‘follow science’. This holds for leftists of all levels and fields of educational background, and some on the right.
But the Covid Panic and Plandemic forced issues into the foreground that had previously gone unnoticed by the majority. A larger number of people began to notice the false statements made by public health officials and politicians alike. The lies were obvious.
(Oddly, many “faithful” followers of science rationalized away the public lies. Cognitive dissonance from confronting evidence that made no sense when viewed through their belief system was too uncomfortable for deal with rationally. Via various mental gymnastics they found ways to remain faithful to their Scientism, sometimes by discounting the evidence, or even blocking it out of their minds and ignoring it completely. ) For the unfortunate, severe injuries to themselves or family meant they had to reexamine the issues.
Fear porn drove many to make unthinking decisions initially, and others made decisions based on what turned out to be outright lies. But perhaps that same fear porn also motivated many intellectually honest people to get educated about the vaccine industry, about testing, about excipients, about clinical trials, and many other issues they had never even thought of.
When the public saw public health officials blatantly and intentionally lying to the whole country at press conferences (e.g. Rachel Walensky in June 2021 claiming that 99% of then hospitalized patients were unvaccinated, and two weeks later admitting that the figure included data from January when 0.5% of the people had been jabbed) they realized that they couldn’t believe anything that public health officials told them.
More people waking up to the fact that vaccines are a fraud and always have been.
I recall when NVIC reported the following stats:
“A 2024 survey study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open found that Americans trust in medical doctors and hospitals declined significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 443,455 people who responded to the survey study aged 18 years or older residing in the U.S with state-level representative quotas for race and ethnicity, age, and gender. Results from the survey showed that trust in physicians and hospitals decreased substantially over the course of the pandemic from 71.5 percent in April 2020 to 40.1 percent in January 2024.”
“According to a Gallup survey conducted in July 2024, there is growing skepticism in the United States about the value of the government’s recommended childhood vaccination schedule. The survey showed that only 40 percent of adults in the U.S. agreed that it is “extremely important” for parents to vaccinate their children. This represents a steep decline from 2019 and 2001, when 58 percent and 64 percent of adults, respectively, agreed with the statement regarding the importance of vaccinating children.”