Dr. David Higgins

It's really important that any time you see a poll or a survey data point that is an outlier, that you pause.

And that's exactly what I did with this.

I immediately thought, wow, that seems out of step with other recent surveys and polls.

So we can say with confidence that we have not seen a drastic decline in confidence in vaccines.

We have not fallen off a cliff of vaccine confidence.

That statement comes from a specific question in this poll.

I read this question and I thought this question is very difficult to interpret.

Now, here's the problem.

In this question, a survey respondent is not being asked about one thing.

They are not being asked simply about the safety of vaccines or their views on vaccines.

They're being asked about four different things.

One, is the science clear on vaccines?

Two, is it damaging to question vaccine science?

Three, are the facts on vaccines still up for debate?

And four, is it damaging to enforce vaccine uptake?

So in this one question, there are four different beliefs about vaccines all bundled into a binary choice.

I thought, how would I answer this question?

And I had a hard time answering it myself.

I believe the science on vaccines is clear.

But I don't actually think it's damaging to question or debate the science of vaccines when done in good faith.