Who wants no kid vax law?

Palko points to this link to a recent Pew Research Report which states, “Nearly two-thirds have high confidence in vaccine effectiveness, and about half trust their safety testing and schedule; Republican support for school vaccine requirements continues to slide,” and includes the above graph.

The focus of the online discussion was that Democrats’ views have remained stable while Republicans have shifted a lot, in a disturbing direction. From a political science perspective, this is an interesting example of partisan polarization of an issue attitude happening in real time.

But I was struck by something else: Even back in the pre-covid era, before vaccination became politically polarized, a sixth of Americans opposed vaccine mandates. Some of this must be from the question wording (“Parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children, even if that may create health risks for others,” rather than, say, “Schools should be able to require that children be vaccinated”), but I wonder if some of this is a sort of costless opposition. It’s possible to oppose a policy in principle, without any expectation that it will be repealed.

P.S. This post’s title harks back to the John Lennon classic, What joker put seven dog lice in my Iraqi fez box?