Despite the rise of anti-vaccine rhetoric since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, new data shows that the vast majority of Ohioans support childhood vaccines and trust their doctors.
The Ohio chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in partnership with the Bowling Green State University Democracy and Public Policy Research Network, conducted a statewide poll last year of 800 voters from Oct. 2-14. The poll was conducted using 2025 vaccine guidelines, not the most recent federal changes on Jan. 6.
Health experts in Ohio and across the country have expressed concern over mixed messages from the federal government and online misinformation dominating much of the conversation around childhood immunizations. In 2025, the U.S. had its worst measles outbreak in decades, with thousands of cases across the country and several outbreaks in Ohio.
Roughly 85% of Ohio’s kindergarteners were vaccinated in the 2024-2025 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That number has continued to drop since the 2019-2020 school year’s 89.9% mark. It follows a national trend of declining vaccination rates, many of them due to religious or philosophical exemptions.
Still, the vast majority of those polled in Ohio are sticking with most medical professionals’ recommendations when it comes to vaccinating their children, according to AAP’s data.
“It’s important to highlight that vaccine hesitancy is not the norm,” Dr. Vivek Ashok, a pediatrician with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, said during a Jan. 20 press briefing.
What did the poll data say?
When looking at political demographics, Republicans tended to trust the COVID-19, MMR and polio vaccine less than Democrats. However, regardless of political affiliation, the majority of respondents are concerned about the resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases.
“If you look at our country 125 years ago, one in 5 children died before their fifth birthday,” said Robert W. Frenck, director of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s Vaccine Research Center. “It’s almost incomprehensible in the United States to think of that… this is really due to public health, and a lot of that public health is vaccines.”
Business and consumer issues reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Vast majority of Ohioans want their kids vaccinated, new data shows
Reporting by Samantha Hendrickson, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
