COVID-19: Majority Against Mandatory Vaccination for Public School Children

Most Americans don’t think public schools should require students to get COVID-19 vaccinations, and have concerns about whether the vaccines are safe for children.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey, co-sponsored by Miranda Devine’s new book Laptop from Hell – available November 30th, finds that 35% of American Adults believe public schools should make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for students, while 55% are against requiring students to get vaccinated. Ten percent (10%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The Food and Drug Administration last month approved COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as five years old, but 60% of Americans say they are concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccination for children, including 39% who are Very Concerned. Thirty-five percent (35%) are not concerned about vaccine safety for children, including 17% who are Not At All Concerned.

There is a remarkable political division over requiring COVID-19 vaccination for children. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats want to make the vaccine mandatory for public school students, but that opinion is shared by only 17% of Republicans and 24% of those affiliated with neither major party. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans and 61% of the unaffiliated are against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school students, as are 31% of Democrats.

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The survey of 1,000 U.S. American Adults was conducted on November 4 and 7, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

More Republicans (78%) than Democrats (46%) or unaffiliateds (61%) are concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccination for children.

Among Americans who are opposed to making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for public school students, 82% are concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccination for children, including 59% who are Very Concerned.

More blacks (67%) and other minorities (66%) than whites (57%) are concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccination for children. However, blacks (46%) are less likely than whites (55%) or other minorities (58%) to oppose making vaccination mandatory for public school students.

More women (42%) than men (37%) are Very Concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for children, but women under 40 are less concerned than older women.

Americans with children at home are more likely than their childless counterparts to oppose making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for public school students.

Those with incomes of $100,000 a year or more are more likely than lower-income Americans to support mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for public school students.

Those 65 and older are more likely than younger Americans to support requiring public school students to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

More than half of voters support workers refusing to comply with mandatory vaccination against COVID-19, and believe that firing workers for non-compliance would hurt the U.S. economy.

Nearly half of voters believe Dr. Anthony Fauci lied about U.S. funding for “gain-of-function” research, and a plurality think the government’s top COVID-19 expert should be forced to resign.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to the public, as well as Platinum Members.

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