At the end of a year of escalating measles outbreaks and on the verge of the United States losing its measles elimination status, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) published a new poll showing that compared to last year, fewer Americans are willing recommend their family member receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Last November, an APPC poll showed that 90% of those polled recommended the MMR vaccine; now that proportion is 86%. Poll takers also report significant declines in the likelihood they would recommend vaccines against HPV, or human papillomavirus (75%, down from 79% in November 2024), and polio (85% down from 88% in November 2024) to eligible people in their household, the APPC said.

The small but significant decreases in the likelihood to recommend the MMR, HPV, and polio vaccines should be a cause for concern.

“The small but significant decreases in the likelihood to recommend the MMR, HPV, and polio vaccines should be a cause for concern,” said Ken Winneg, PhD, APPC’s managing director of survey research.

83% said the vaccine was safe

About 83% of those polled said they believed the MMR vaccine was safe, a drop of five percentage points since 2022. The 83% figure was similar to proportions seen in 2023 and 2024. Similarly, when comparing 2022 to 2025, APPC surveys have shown a significant decline in the perceived effectiveness of the MMR vaccine, down to 83% this year from 87% in 2022.

Unchanged, however, was the perception of safety of the vaccine compared to getting the virus it prevents: 76% of respondents said it is true that it is safer to get the MMR vaccine than to get the diseases it protects against. That’s the same percentage as in 2024.

Only 13% of those polled said they were concerned or worried that they or someone in their family would contract measles over the “next three months,” a four-point decline from April 2025 (17%).

The United States will likely see 2,000 measles cases before 2025 comes to an end, with ongoing outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah, and Arizona and daily new cases with multiple exposures in schools, churches, and documented household transmission.

The margin of sampling error was ±3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. 

South Carolina has 147 measles cases

In South Carolina, there are now 147 measles cases, including 144 in the Upstate region.

“Four of the new cases are household members of known cases, one resulted from the previously reported exposure at the Way of Truth Church in Inman, one resulted from a previously reported school exposure, and the source of exposure is unknown for three of the cases,” the South Carolina Department of Public Health said. “There are currently 224 people in quarantine and 4 in isolation.”

With the new cases in South Carolina come new exposures at New Prospect Elementary school, where 56 students are now in quarantine. Students are three other schools are also in quarantine.