Northwestern University: Support for school vaccination requirements edges up, but some resistance remains

New survey results from a consortium of universities that includes Northwestern, Harvard, Northeastern and Rutgers reveal a slight increase in Americans who support vaccination requirements. Overall, there was a 4-percentage point rise from 54% to 58% since February and the growth holds across gender, race and ethnicity and income levels.

While young children cannot get vaccinated yet, the FDA is expected to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents 12 to 15 years old, which is likely to have an impact on school policies.

“This will stimulate a lot of discussion about vaccine requirements,” said political scientist James Druckman, the Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and associate director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern. He is one of the researchers investigating Americans’ attitudes about COVID-19.