A KFF poll released today on how Americans view the rapidly growing measles outbreak found that most adults are aware of it, and though large majorities are confident about the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, doubts driven by misinformation linger.
With well over 800 cases already this year, the United States is on track to pass the last large spike in cases in 2019, given a large outbreak centered in West Texas, a spate of smaller outbreaks, and a small but steady stream of infections in people exposed during international travel.
The KFF team conducted its online and telephone survey from April 8 to April 15 using a nationally representative sample of 1,022 adults.
High awareness about outbreak
About half of adults (56%) and parents of children younger than 18 years (48%) were aware of this year's rise in cases. Some groups, however, were more worried about the outbreak, including Black and Hispanic adults.
The level of concern also shows a partisan divide, with Democrats much more likely to be worried than Republicans, 76% versus 28%, a pattern they also found with partisan-leaning parents (73% vs 26%).
False claims gaining more attention
When KFF asked if respondents had read or heard about the false claim that the MMR vaccine is more dangerous than measles, one in three adults said they knew about the misinformation, up 15 percentage points from a year ago.
The share of people who had heard about the claim increased in partisans, including Democrats, with the percentage doubling to 40%, compared with 17% a year ago.
Less than 5%, however, said false claims about vaccine safety, the link between the vaccine to autism, and vitamin A as a measles preventive were definitely true, with much larger shares saying the claims are definitely false.
The polling team found a large portion of uncertainty among participants, with at least half saying they weren't sure if the claims were true or false, which KFF called the "malleable middle."
Republicans and independents were twice as likely as Democrats to believe or lean toward believing the false claims. About a third (35%) of Republicans and one quarter (26%) of independents said the MMR vaccine definitely or probably causes autism, compared to 1 in 10 Democrats.
KFF also found similar partisan breakdowns for the vitamin A preventive and other vaccine safety beliefs.
Confidence high, but lower in Republican-leaning
Despite the traction of the false claims, the researchers found high confidence in MMR vaccine safety, with a large majority of the public (83%) and parents (78%) saying they are very or somewhat confident in the safety of MMR vaccines.
Levels were lower in Republicans and those leaning Republican, with 3 in 10 (31%) registering a lack of confidence in MMR vaccine safety, including 17% who said they aren't confident at all.
The margin of error for the total sampling of the poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Texas counties report more cases; Washington confirms fifth infection
Two more Texas counties have reported cases, including the first known case in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, which involves a middle school student from the city of Lucas, officials from Collin County said in a Facebook post. Earlier this week, Collin County had issued a health alert about potential measles exposure at three locations in Plano.
In southern Texas, Atascosa County officials announced a confirmed case in an adult resident who is unvaccinated and may have exposed others while attending a church gathering on April 13 at Shearit Yisrael Qahal Yehoshua, according to the county's Facebook page.
Elsewhere, Public Health – Seattle & King County yesterday reported a measles infection in a King County infant who had traveled through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and was likely exposed during international travel, marking Washington's fifth case of the year.
