Polls find greater skepticism of mandatory vaccines among younger Americans. Clinton and Bush are running even in Florida. And Gallup is doing more online research, but the Gallup Daily will remain a telephone poll. This HuffPollster for Tuesday, February 3, 2015.
MILLENNIALS LESS SUPPORTIVE OF MANDATORY VACCINATION – Monica Anderson: “A Pew Research Center report released last week shows that a majority of Americans say children should be required to get vaccinated. Further analysis of the survey data reveals significant age differences in views about vaccines. In 2009, by contrast, opinions about vaccines were roughly the same across age groups. Also, some modest partisan divisions have emerged since 2009, when Pew Research last polled on the issue. Overall, 68% of U.S. adults say childhood vaccinations should be required, while 30% say parents should be able to decide. Among all age groups, young adults are more likely to say vaccinating children should be a parental choice. Some 41% of 18- to 29-year-olds say parents should be able to decide whether or not their child gets vaccinated; only 20% of adults 65 or older echo this opinion. Older Americans are strong supporters of requiring childhood vaccinations – 79% say they hold that view, compared with 59% of those under 30.” [Pew]
Another poll finds similar result -Peter Moore: “YouGov’s latest research shows that most Americans (57%) support requiring all children to get vaccinated against childhood diseases, but 32% do think that it should be up to parents to decide whether or not their child should be vaccinated. Americans under the age of 30 (43%) are far more likely than other age groups to say that the decision should be left to parents. Only 26% of 45-64 year olds and 21% of over-65s think that vaccination should be at parental discretion…Younger Americans are not only more likely to oppose mandatory vaccination, but are also more likely to say that vaccines can cause autism. 21% of under-30s say that they can cause autism, compared to only 3% of over-65s.”
[YouGov]
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-Scott Walker hires Ed Goeas, Brian Tringali and B.J. Martino of the Tarrance Group to oversee polling for his presidential exploratory committee. [CNN]
-Anna Maria Berry-Jester assesses Latino enrollment in the Affordable Care Act. [538]
-Nate Silver sounds off on 2014, 2016 and FiveThirtyEight’s critics. [Salon]
