A new poll conducted by Public First finds that more Americans doubt vaccine safety than trust it. That headline has predictably been framed as a story about rising anti-vaccine sentiment on the right, but buried in the data is a finding that should trouble public health leadership: 36 percent of those who voted for Kamala Harris agree that the facts on vaccines are still up for debate, and that it is damaging to enforce their uptake. That’s not a fringe position. And for diseases that require near-universal community participation to be kept in check, it’s a math problem that no mandate can solve.

The poll found that only 52 percent of Harris voters — the most institutionally aligned, most pro-mandate political cohort in the country — agreed that the science on vaccines is clear and that it is damaging to question it. More than a third hold a view that conventionally would be described as vaccine-skeptical. That’s not a fringe element. That’s a constituency. It isn’t ignorance that needs correction. It’s a signal that deserves to be understood.

The poll framed its questions in terms of which candidates respondents had supported, but this is an issue that transcends politics. We need a vaccine........

© Townhall