More Americans exposed to false claims about measles and vaccine: poll

Most adults and parents in the US have read or heard false claims about measles and the vaccine to prevent the illness, leaving many unsure of what to believe, a poll by the nonprofit organisation KFF showed on Wednesday.

The health policy nonprofit polled Americans on whether they had been exposed to three circulating false or misleading statements about measles.

Experts have said the fight against rising measles cases is being hampered by a lack of forceful advocacy for vaccination by government health officials and by statements about unproven treatments that confuse parents.

A third of the 1,380 US adults and parents polled by KFF have been exposed to the claim that receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is more dangerous than becoming infected with the diseases, marking an increase of about 15 percentage points since a poll conducted in March 2024.

This came after a March 11 interview on Fox News in which US secretary of health and human services Robert F Kennedy Jnr amplified a false narrative about MMR vaccine risks by claiming without evidence that the vaccine results in “deaths every year” and causes “all the illnesses” associated with disease.

Since taking the top job, Kennedy, who has a long history of advocating against vaccines, has backed the use of shots as the best way to prevent measles.

However, he has also made misleading claims about nutrition and treatments, including vitamin A, which can help some children with malnutrition, but in high doses can cause liver damage.

Vaccine experts and physicians said there are no effective drugs for measles, only treatments to manage its symptoms, and they asserted the vaccine is the only way to prevent infection. The measles vaccine is 93% effective after one dose and 97% effective after two.

About six in 10 adults and 61% of parents surveyed said they have read or heard the MMR vaccine causes autism, a claim debunked by many studies.

Roughly a fifth of adults and parents have also heard the false claim that vitamin A prevents measles.

The poll's results come during one of the biggest measles outbreaks in the US in the past decade, fuelled by declining vaccination rates in parts of Texas and other areas in the country.

Less than 5% of adults surveyed think the three claims are “definitely true”, while fewer than half said they are “definitely false”, the poll showed. However, at least half the respondents expressed some uncertainty about whether to believe each claim, describing them as “probably true” or “probably false”.

Most adults, and 78% of patients, said they are very or somewhat confident the vaccines are safe.

The survey was conducted online and by telephone among 1,380 adults from April 8 to 15.

Reuters