How much do you trust the safety and effectiveness of vaccines recommended for children in the United States?

Background

Trust in childhood vaccines has become one of the most closely watched public health questions in the United States. According to a November 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 63 percent of Americans are extremely or very confident that childhood vaccines are effective at preventing serious illness, and 84 percent say the benefits of the MMR vaccine outweigh its risks. At the same time, confidence is softer on other dimensions: only 53 percent of adults are highly confident that childhood vaccines have received enough safety testing, and 51 percent feel the vaccine schedule itself is safe. These questions have gained new urgency as the CDC in January 2026 overhauled the childhood immunization schedule, reducing universal recommendations from 18 diseases to 11 and creating new categories for risk-based and shared decision-making vaccinations. Meanwhile, measles cases surged to over 2,100 confirmed infections in 2025, the highest annual total since the disease was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, with the vast majority occurring among unvaccinated individuals.

Those who express high trust in childhood vaccines point to decades of scientific evidence, the near-elimination of diseases like measles and polio, and the rigorous FDA and CDC approval processes that govern vaccine safety. Medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics continue to recommend the full complement of routine childhood vaccinations. Those with lower confidence often cite concerns about the number and timing of vaccines on the schedule, a desire for more parental autonomy, and eroding trust in federal health institutions. A February 2026 KFF tracking poll found that 56 percent of adults have little to no confidence in federal health agencies to make childhood vaccine schedule recommendations. Views divide sharply along partisan lines: Pew found that 80 percent of Democrats but only 48 percent of Republicans express high confidence in vaccine effectiveness, and support for school MMR requirements among Republicans fell from 79 percent in 2019 to 52 percent in 2025.

The stakes are tangible. CDC data show that MMR vaccination coverage among kindergartners fell to 92.5 percent during the 2024-2025 school year, below the 95 percent threshold needed for herd immunity, and non-medical exemptions reached a record 3.4 percent. Approximately 286,000 kindergartners entered school without complete MMR vaccination. Whether public confidence rises or continues to erode will shape vaccination rates, the frequency of preventable disease outbreaks, the direction of state school-entry requirements, and the trajectory of federal vaccine policy for years to come.