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A summary of presentations from the weekly Summit partner webinars

January 30, 2025 – The latest Summit Summary

Vaccines & Public Opinion: What Polling Tells Us – Candace DeMatteis, Vice President, Policy & Advocacy, VacciNATION Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease

Candace DeMatteis gave an update about current polling on vaccines and public opinion.

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Vaccines & Public Opinion: What Polling Tells Us – Candace DeMatteis
The Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease (PFID) was established in 2020 and has a sister organization, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, to draw linkages between the two in the coming years. PFID is focused on the antimicrobial resistance crisis and vaccination. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus was on the disease, vaccines, and developing education materials for policymaker outreach.

Because vaccine and vaccination issues have been politicized, PFID is continuing outreach to policymakers and, as part of that, the organization does polling of likely voters. This update was based on new polling data released on January 29, 2025.

Key Poll Findings: Overall
From polling of likely voters, the following beliefs emerged. It was noted that the polling numbers indicating strong support of vaccinations, while high for any poll, are shy of what is needed in some cases to ensure community immunity; also, the responses differed based on partisanship.

  • 74% of respondents believe the United States should prioritize ensuring that FDA-approved vaccines are widely available for everyone.
  • 81% of respondents say it is important for the United States to remain a leader in developing new vaccines.
  • 88% of respondents with children under age 18 say their children typically get the vaccines their doctor or health care provider recommends.
  • Nearly 70% of respondents expressed concern over declining vaccination rates among children in the United States.
  • People trust their doctors, above other health care workers, scientists, and institutions.
  • Voters generally have favorable views towards doctors, medicine, and vaccines.
    • Three in four people said it is important to maintain access to the polio vaccine.
    • In general, people feel more strongly about vaccinating children than themselves.
    • Across the board, people expressed interest in learning more about potential vaccines against serious illnesses.
  • There are growing divisions, along partisan lines, of perceptions of the safety of vaccines.
    • The division was most visible in the polling for COVID-19 vaccine perceptions; the differential was huge.
    • Republican voters have more skeptical views, in general, regarding vaccines than do Democrats and Independents.
    • Many more Republicans would say the risks of the COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the benefits; Democrats skewed the other way. (People seem to be hearing/consuming media that gives equally weighted messaging for the risks and benefits, which does not reflect reality.)

Key Findings: Vaccine-Related Values
PFID sometimes polled on forced choice statements (i.e., pro- and anti-vaccines) to elicit vaccine-related values, which are highlighted below.

  • Respondents indicated that protecting themselves and their loved ones, in that order, were the top reasons to get vaccinated.
  • Concerns about the long-term health impacts of vaccines was the top reason not to get vaccinated.
    • More people in the latest poll, versus the poll conducted before, said they would want to wait and see a vaccine on the market for several years before they would get vaccinated or vaccinate their children. This has troubling implications for new vaccines to the market, and for managing coming diseases/pandemics with new vaccines.
  • Respondents (73%) favored mandates for requiring childhood vaccines to attend public schools.
  • People still resonate with the idea that healthy people have a responsibility and an opportunity to positively affect public health by getting vaccinated.

Key Findings: Communications & Media
The poll indicated that voters, although there are significant differences along party lines, strongly agree that:

  • Vaccines protect communities from dangerous outbreaks of disease.
  • Widespread vaccination means more immunity and better community safety.
  • Healthy people should get vaccines to protect others.

Certain analogies may be effective to explain vaccines. The following analogies were tested; the first two were successful:

  • Vaccines as anti-virus software installed to detect and shut down viruses before they cause problems
  • Vaccines as armies that train to recognize and attack diseases in your body
  • Seatbelts and sprinklers to combat fires were not as effective as analogies

The 2025 poll shows a decline in trust, especially among Republicans, in CDC and FDA.

The PFID Website
The PFID website is www.fightinfectiousdisease.org, and vaccine-specific information can be found on www.fightinfectiousdisease.org/vaccination. The site includes:

  • Information about the history and success of vaccines, for policymakers and the public
  • Information to build excitement about the future of vaccines
  • Highlights of what may happen if the United States go backwards with regard to vaccines

Emerging Challenges
These challenges may affect people’s opinions about vaccinations and their decisions to get them.

  • Distrust of government
  • Disease outbreaks
  • Implications that safety is an issue (“pro-safety”)
  • Loss of trust in FDA and CDC, with partisan divides
  • Perception that individual immunization decisions do not affect others’ health
  • Perceptions of risks versus benefits with lack of disease experience
  • Linkages between food-as-medicine and mainstreaming of anti-vaccine messages
  • People who believe there is “credible evidence” of a link between vaccines and autism

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q: How did you collect the data: was it cold calling, was it email? You say voters, so obviously it’s from a population of registered voters. And then what is the sample size and geographical spread, national, regional? How do you account for regional differences on the ground, and so on?
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): The poll was done online. And we oversampled some groups to try to get more, different groups to make sure we were covering a good demographic. And there were some that were also reached out to by telephone to make sure that we had that total. There were 1,564 registered voters and about a 50/50 split between male/female. It was a national poll, but we did check regions; we do not have that breakdown yet. The South was overrepresented: it was 40% of the poll; the Northeast, Midwest and West were about 20%, each.

Q: There will be opportunities going forward with regard to the intersection of chronic disease and infectious disease and the importance of preventing infectious disease in those who have chronic illnesses. How do your two organizations – one to fight chronic disease and one to fight infectious disease – think about moving forward on some of this? Even putting the political environment aside, it’s still a very important conversation topic?
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): With COVID-19, people with chronic disease are particularly vulnerable. And so, it’s really important that they stay up to date on their vaccinations. That tends to be more true in adults, but certainly for children, as well. There’s also the risk of people who are immunocompromised and cannot be vaccinated. So, they’re undergoing cancer treatment, or maybe they’re an organ recipient. So that is a vulnerable population in the chronic disease community that benefits from vaccination. So, we’re drawing those parallels, as well. Some of our board members from PFID also raised the disability that is associated with many vaccine-preventable diseases that lead to chronic health problems and that, again, we can’t go backwards. Let us remember what it was like [before vaccines]. Polio is a great example of just the disability; people died, but people also survived with disability. Shingles: 10% of shingles cases involve the eye and can cause permanent eye damage. That’s a long-term chronic condition [post-herpetic neuralgia] that people have to live with. So there are so many parallels. And I think there were opportunities in today’s hearing [confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of DHHS]. Senator Cassidy talked about a young woman needing a liver transplant from hepatitis B, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when a $50 vaccine would have prevented that from happening. So, I think that there are so many parallels, and it will be so important that part of a healthy population is the prevention of chronic illness, and vaccines are an important part of that.
L.J Tan (Immunize): One of the terms I’ve been using for a while is the idea that VPD, which stands for vaccine-preventable disease, can also stand for vaccine-preventable disability.

Q: How often do you do this poll? And how often do you change those questions? The landscape is changing so quickly. It was great to have updated information. Closing the survey in January 2025 and then to have such great updated information and to be able to adapt to the current events and changes that you mentioned, like WHO.
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): This is our second time doing it. And, candidly, we did keep some questions the same, so we could do trends. Kaiser Family Foundation and others do annual polls, so we really focused in on the messaging. But this is only our second time doing it. We would love to continue to do it, because, as you mentioned, it’s a very dynamic time right now: post-pandemic, and all the news and the chatter out there. So it is important that we test these messages, and we know what people are thinking. But right now that’s our latest. We’ve done it 2 years in a row. I hope that continues, but I can’t promise that.

Q: So do you have any speculation at your organization, or you personally, about why adult immunization rates continue to decline, and one of the reasons cited is vaccine confidence. And then you have polling results that say people really still believe in this. So maybe some thoughts on that?
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): It’s that inertia, I guess, is some of it. We’re behind on childhood vaccination, so that’s an important thing, and people tend to take care of their kids first. It’s a challenge. Now, where we have seen some progress is in the Medicare program, where they now have made vaccines free from copays and the like, and there has been some uptake there. I think we see broader flu vaccinations when we have a bad flu season. It’s just sad that we almost need that negative reinforcement, which is too bad. And there’s just a lot of fatigue, too, after COVID-19, sadly, because the COVID-19 vaccine saved millions of people and spared so much disability and serious illness. But it’s become so politicized that it’s almost as if it’s like, “I’m proud I’m healthy. I didn’t need that vaccine.” It’s almost like it’s more of a statement to be unvaccinated or not get vaccinated; than it is to vaccinate. So, the bottom line is it’s a really challenging time. People seem open, at least in the polls, to hearing from their doctors. So there really is an opportunity there. But that diligence and keeping that pace up, we’re just going to have to keep doing that. These big campaigns and the like, I don’t know that’s moving the needle anymore, sadly.
L.J Tan (Immunize): But I do think it’s interesting that, you know polling and survey reflects intent, and most people tend to be good, right? But where I wish we had a better understanding is what we need to do to drive intent into action. So, I respond to your poll, Candace, and say, “Absolutely, I believe in this.” But then, to get myself out there and actually get vaccinated, what makes me take that last step? And maybe that’s another polling section. I would love to encourage you to ask, “Now, you’ve said all this, what gets in your way from getting vaccinated? Is it just convenience? What is it? Is it really fatigue?” It’d be interesting to see that.
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): One thing we did ask last year in our poll – because, so you’re at the doctor’s office – the doctor recommends you get your shingles shot, or whatever, if it were available right then and there, would you do it? And more people said they would. Now, I love going to my grocery store or medical pharmacy on a Saturday night, when it’s convenient for me. But I’m motivated to act, and I will continue to act. But for those people who say, “Well, my doctor said I should get it. Maybe I should.” I’ll give you a personal example: My dad is in the VA health system, he has limited driving ability, but they’re there, and they’re like you need a flu shot and you need a COVID-19 shot, you ready? And he rolls up his sleeve and gets it done because it’s right there. He doesn’t have time to sit there and think, ‘Well, am I going to get in the car? Do I really want to do this?’ I mean, it’s like, “Hey, we recommend it. You ready?” And, “Sure.” So, there may be some opportunity there, as well. We’ve moved away from that for a number of reasons, and it works great to have it in these community settings, but maybe for some of these others, they need it right then and there, so they can hear it from their doctor and get it done.

Q: Have there been any correlations made between where people obtain their news and information and their personal views?
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): That’s a great question, and we did try to test that, especially around social media. What people said on the survey is that they do hear it, but they don’t follow it. They don’t buy into it. Now, how accurate that is, nobody wants to say, “Oh, yeah, I saw this podcast my next door neighbor does from his basement, and I believe everything he said.” Nobody’s going to admit to that, necessarily, and that’s what the pollsters told us. But what was telling was when we said, “What do you think about what you’re seeing in the media or on social media? Specifically, how is that balance? Are you hearing more about vaccine risk? Safety? Both?” And it was very much even, which, on its surface, may sound like, okay, well, they’re hearing about risks and benefits, that’s good. To me, that was a warning sign that they’re really hearing a lot more about risk than we need to hear, compared to benefits. The risk of the vaccines is not equal to the risk of the diseases.
L.J Tan (Immunize): Yes, absolutely, I hear you. The benefits generally outweigh the risk by so much. So your concern is definitely a canary in the coal mine.

Q: From your poll data, do you have insights into how to deliver the message that vaccine confidence or vaccinating is the norm? Do you think it should be delivered predominantly through the primary care providers? Or are there other insights as to where we can continue to deliver the message to the public that immunization remains the social norm?
Candace DeMatteis (PFID): That’s a great question. I think sometimes these polls, like where it says, “The vast majority of Americans support vaccination,” I think that does help to normalize it some. But I saw Dr. Offit talking recently, and he said once you ring that fear bell, it’s going to take one-on-one, personal conversations to un-ring it, and it may take multiple conversations. And that’s part of the challenge, too, is that once that doubt sets in, it’s going to take that medical professional, someone that they trust, to talk about it. But I do think talking more about, “Hey, most people support it. They’re concerned about lower vaccination rates. They take this opportunity to do it themselves.” The more we can talk about that and make sure we’re not promoting the idea that somehow it’s cool or it’s the in thing to resist [vaccination]. You know, “I’m a resistor. I’m a revolutionary,” that type of thing, “I’m smarter than you.” I’ve seen that, too, candidly, on social media. If there are ways that we can push back about that: it’s a majority of people [who support vaccination], maybe it’s a silent majority, maybe the minority is very vocal, but are there ways that we can continue to talk about this, and give platforms to people who have the science, who know and are trusted voices.

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