Younger People More Likely To Think Vaccines Are Unsafe

A new poll confirms that young adults are more skeptical of vaccines than their parents or grandparents. Not a shocker, but a closer look at those findings may provide an explanation for the current measles outbreak.

“Young parents nowadays, fortunately or unfortunately, are not aware of certain diseases that we vaccinate children against because, thankfully, they’ve been close to being eradicated in the United States over the past 10, 15, 20 years,” said Roya Samuels, MD, a pediatrician at Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

One example, said Dr. Samuels, is haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), which is a bacteria that causes the epiglottis (a small lid) that covers the windpipe to swell, blocking the flow of air into the lungs. This is a potentially life-threatening condition.

“This is a disease that we’ve been vaccinating against for decades and, thankfully, we are hard-pressed to see a case of epiglottis anymore,” said Dr. Samuels. “Physicians in training these days are reading about it in textbooks and not necessarily seeing cases of it because we’ve done such a great job of vaccinating children.”

According to data from the Pew Research Center, which polled 1,003 adults, 15 percent of those ages 18 to 29 said vaccinations are unsafe. That’s more than double the number of adults polled age 50 or older.

Up until the early 1960s, when measles vaccinations became widespread, millions of Americans would become infected with the contagious respiratory disease and up to 500 died yearly.

Thanks to those vaccinations, the United States declared that measles had been eliminated in 2000. From 2001 and 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there were between 37 and 220 cases of measles. In 2014, there were 644 cases and, so far this year, there have been 121 reports of measles.

But, younger adults wary of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine have little first-hand knowledge of the disease.

“I think it’s a matter of educating the public about where we were 20 years ago and how far we’ve come utilizing our scientific advancements for the betterment of children’s health,” said Dr. Samuels.