• Posted March 31, 2025

Local Outbreaks Can Motivate The Vaccine-Hesitant, Poll Finds

COVID-19 and influenza burned through the U.S. during this year’s cold and flu season, and deadly measles outbreaks have sickened people in 19 states.

So what does it take to get people vaccinated against these preventable diseases?

Essentially, an outbreak within a person’s own community appears to be one of the most potent influences on Americans’ vaccination decisions, according to a new HealthDay/Harris Poll.

Two-thirds of people (67%) said local outbreaks and new variants of vaccine-preventable diseases influence their decision to get a shot, poll results show.

But waiting for an outbreak is a less-than-ideal way to inspire vaccination, and even then, illness and death won’t make a difference to that remaining third, noted immunization expert Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston.

“I don't think we really fully understand all of the social determinants of vaccine hesitancy, and the problem is that vaccine hesitancy is now a lethal force in America,” Hotez said in an interview with HealthDay TV.

He pointed to the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas, during which an unvaccinated child died – the first U.S. measles death since 2015.

“You don't want to wait for an epidemic to convince people of this,” said Hotez, who is also dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “Even here in West Texas, where we're seeing a large measles epidemic, there is a catch-up campaign, and now people are starting to get it and getting vaccinated -- but a lot of people aren't. So, I don't know that we want to rely on that as our long-term approach.”

Health care providers play an important role, poll results show.

About 72% of respondents said health care providers influence their decisions regarding vaccination. Likewise, 89% said they have gone to their provider for vaccine information, and 41% consider their provider their main source of information.

“That's the best possible outcome, right?” Hotez said. “That would be good news, of course, if people could rely more on their healthcare provider. Probably one of our best hopes is a trusted messenger. It may not be sufficient, but it's certainly the right direction.”

Media coverage of outbreaks appears to move folks in favor of vaccination, poll results show, with more than half (54%) saying that reported increases in measles and whooping cough have made them more supportive of vaccination.

At the same time, respondents downplayed the role of social media, with 33% saying that online communities influence their vaccination decisions.

In terms of its importance regarding vaccine guidance, the federal government did not fare well.

In all, 38% of respondents said agencies like the National Institutes of Health or U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are their main source of vaccine information, and 44% said the federal government should be responsible for public health policy related to infectious diseases.

Strikingly, about 1 in 6 people (14%) said no outside entities should be involved, and vaccine decisions should be left up to the individual.

More than 2 in 5 people (44%) reported that their stance on vaccines has changed in the past five years, the poll shows.

Those changes were nearly evenly split between those who became more supportive (25%) and those who became less supportive (19%).

Both sides overwhelmingly pointed to the COVID pandemic and how vaccines were handled as the reason their stance had changed, the poll shows.

“My last book, 'The Deadly Rise of Antiscience,' shows that 200,000 Americans needlessly died, including 40,000 in my state of Texas, because they refused COVID vaccines,” Hotez said. “And it wasn't misinformation or infodemic, as we commonly call it. It was a targeted, organized disinformation campaign.”

The poll was conducted online from Feb. 28 to March 4 among 2,092 U.S. adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on recommended vaccines by age.

SOURCE: Harris Poll, March 31, 2025; HealthDay TV, March 31, 2025