By James Reinl, Social Affairs Correspondent, For Dailymail.Com
15:37 03 Nov 2023, updated 15:37 03 Nov 2023
Americans are increasingly questioning the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, and politicians from both the left and right are capitalizing on these fears in their campaigns for the White House.
Recent polls indicate that while most voters still trust vaccines for Covid-19, MMR, and other diseases, a significant number have changed their views in recent months and now consider vaccines to be unsafe.
These surveys come at a time when health authorities are warning of widespread misinformation online, linking vaccines to death and autism, and promoting the use of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug mainly used in animals, as a treatment for Covid-19.
Despite these warnings and their potential impact on public health, two politicians are incorporating vaccine skepticism into their platforms for the 2024 elections — Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an independent, and Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican Governor.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which conducted a poll on vaccines this week, described concerning ‘warning signs’ indicating rising levels of skepticism.
‘Growing numbers of people now have doubts about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines,’ said Jamieson.
Her poll of over 1,500 adults found that the percentage of Americans who view Covid-19 vaccines as unsafe has increased from 18 percent in August of last year to 24 percent last month.
Similarly, the percentage of those who link vaccines to autism in children has risen from 10 percent in April 2021 to 16 percent last month.
Likewise, the percentage of adults who support the use of ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19 has risen from 10 percent in September 2021 to 26 percent last month.
Using ivermectin as a treatment for coronavirus contradicts the advice of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Another survey of 1,110 US adults by Rasmussen Reports yielded even more striking results.
Nearly a quarter of respondents — 24 percent — claimed to know someone personally who had died due to side effects of a Covid-19 vaccine.
While there have been cases of heart problems and thrombosis linked to Covid-19 vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that serious adverse reactions are rare.
Studies have shown that the vaccines have prevented millions of deaths and hospitalizations in the US.
Over 1.1 million Americans have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, with the unvaccinated experiencing much higher mortality rates.
The uptake of the latest Covid-19 shots, which became available in mid-September, has been slow.
According to Rasmussen, a significant number of Americans have expressed interest in joining a class-action lawsuit against Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and other vaccine manufacturers due to the side effects of vaccines.
A staggering 42 percent of respondents stated that they would likely join such a legal effort, with 24 percent saying they would be very likely to do so.
There are indications that the growing vaccine skepticism is influencing the upcoming race for the White House.
Kennedy, who recently withdrew
