Less than half of Americans support making elementary students get COVID-19 vaccines as they return to school this month, according to a new Gallup poll.
Gallup reported Monday that 48% of adults believe grade schoolers should be vaccinated to attend classes, the first time the company has posed this question. Vaccines were not approved for children younger than 12 at the same time last year.
The poll found “slim majorities” favor vaccine mandates for middle school, high school and college students — but support for all three has fallen 5-9 percentage points since July 2021.
While Democrats without children are about 10 percentage points more likely than Republican nonparents to support vaccine mandates for each group of students, most parents from both parties oppose them.
About 40% of all parents support mandates for any student cohort, while between 51% and 57% of nonparents support them.
“Parents of school-aged children are significantly less likely than nonparents to favor vaccination mandates at all education levels,” Gallup reported.
The poll also found that 55% of Americans favor vaccine mandates for K-12 teachers and staff, down from 63% last September.
Gallup conducted the randomized national web survey of 3,682 members of its Gallup Panel on July 26-Aug. 2. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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