Where Are the Majority Who Support Vaccines?

Overview

Texas saw a big upswing in the number of anti-vaccine bills filed during the 2021 and 2023 state legislative sessions — the two sessions since the COVID-19 pandemic began. It is clear that the once-fringe anti-vaccine movement has become increasingly entrenched and effective in the Lone Star State.

But what about the majority of Texans — the millions who support immunization and receive vaccines each year? Are their opinions heard? Perhaps there is a simple answer: Unlike vaccine opponents, they do not call or email their legislators, visit their district offices, or go to Austin to testify for public health policies. If we want to do right by our fellow Texans, it is time for a change.

A Vocal Minority

Vaccines are often cited as one of the world’s greatest public health initiatives. They save millions of lives each year from smallpox, measles, polio, and dozens of other diseases. Vaccines promote economic freedom by reducing health care costs, maintaining a stable workforce, facilitating international trade and travel, and fostering long-term economic growth. Since these diseases have largely left public view, people now rarely see the harms they can cause. As a result, an increasingly vocal minority has used the opportunity to promote their dangerous beliefs that vaccines are unsafety, ineffective, and unnecessity. 

This vocal minority deceptively calls for “medical freedom,” or the right to choose what one does with one’s own body. Vaccine opponents argue that public health measures, such as vaccines, should be a matter of individual choice, even at risk to the safety of others. By focusing on the choices and wants of the individual, rather than society more broadly, they disregard one central aspect of public health — doing something to help and protect others, especially those who are more vulnerable. 

Personal Rights over Public Health

In Texas, vaccine opponents frequently attend legislative hearings in Austin, where they promote myths and misconceptions about vaccines to the policymakers who enact laws governing the entire state. We recently compiled and analyzed public testimonies delivered by vaccine opponents at the Texas Legislature in 2021.[1] While some said they choose not to immunize due to medical reasons, we found that a more vocal group said they objected to vaccines based on their own personal beliefs. These beliefs included that vaccines are harmful, that the diseases vaccines protect against are not serious, and that the government is trying to control people’s lives. 

If the vocal minority has its way, it will become easier to get school vaccine exemptions than to get a vaccine in Texas. School vaccine requirements may be eliminated altogether, putting our communities at greater risk of serious disease. Resources that help people make informed decisions about immunization may be harder to access, leaving us less able to care for ourselves and our loved ones as a result.

Call to Action

Is this the Texas we want to live in? Texans look out for one another, help each other and follow rules to protect each other. We do this in many ways — by stopping at stop signs and obeying the speed limit (for the most part) — because we know if we do not, others may be harmed. Although we may not want to stop at an intersection, it is not our right to hit other cars. Neither is it our right to harm others. Why, then, do we argue about public health measures to score political points? 

As Texans, we should embrace freedom from harm for all and follow public health measures to help prevent harm to others — including infants, older adults, and those who cannot receive vaccines, such as cancer patients and other people with compromised immune systems.

If we want our communities, and especially our children, to have the freedom to be healthy and have the freedom to be safe from harm, the majority of Texans who support vaccines need to make their voices heard. More of us need to write to our lawmakers, testify in Austin, and vote. Together, we can do our part to help fellow Texans.

Note

[1] Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Rekha Lakshmanan, Neha Kalakuntla, and Neha Tallapragada, “Personal Rights over Public Health: Anti-vaccine Rhetoric in the Texas Legislature,” Vaccine X 18 (June 2024): 100468, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100468. This open-access article reviews statements from individuals who testified before the Texas Legislature. For more information on vaccines, vaccine hesitancy, and Texas vaccine policies and politics, visit bakerinstitute.org/vaccine-project.

This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.