A new study from Johns Hopkins University found that people who follow “new right” media are more than twice as likely to be hesitant about getting vaccinated than those who don’t engage with those media at all.
In 2025, when measles cases hit an all-time high in the United States, researchers surveyed nearly 3,000 adults and asked participants about their sources of news and health information and how they felt about the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. The findings revealed how certain media habits are strongly associated with attitudes toward vaccines.
The research found the following:
- People who regularly engaged with “new right” media, or digital news outlets with a strong conservative political bias, such as Breitbart, Newsmax, and Zero Hedge, were more than twice as likely to be vaccine hesitant.
- Hesitant adults were more likely to rely on nonauthoritative health information sources, such as alternative health providers, social media health influencers, and alternative medicine newsletters such as Children’s Health Defense.
”Our research reveals strong associations between people’s specific media habits and their attitudes toward vaccination.Author Lauren Gardner, director of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, said she is an expert in using data and modeling to better understand disease risk.Our findings suggest that when everyone is already participating online, being selective about where and how they participate matters.”
The study was newly published in the journal vaccine.
In 2025, the number of measles cases in the United States will exceed 2,000 in 43 states, the highest number since the highly contagious disease was declared eradicated in 2000. Most of the cases occurred in unvaccinated people.
Measles cases continue to rise this year.
The outbreak comes as childhood vaccination rates, including the MMR vaccine, have steadily declined nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevalence among school children remains at 93%, below the herd immunity threshold of 95% needed to predict or limit the spread of measles.
Previous research has shown that adults who rely on less reliable health sources, such as internet news and social media, for vaccine information are more hesitant to vaccinate their children. But less was known about how people’s general news habits are linked to their beliefs about vaccination.
Gardner’s team surveyed 2,970 adults last August. Although most Americans (83%) said the benefits of the MMR vaccine outweigh the risks, about 1 in 6 respondents said they were hesitant about the vaccine.
Hesitant adults were significantly younger, with 62% under the age of 44 and more likely to be parents. They were more likely to be racial minorities, lower income, and less educated. They expressed more conservative political beliefs and were more likely to identify with the Republican Party (39%) and independents (33%). Hesitant adults were also more likely to identify with the Make America Healthy Again movement (MAHA) (43%) than non-hesitant adults (27%).
Although most participants (87%) reported this after the news, there were no significant differences between hesitant and non-hesitant adults. Almost everyone said they went online at least daily, and almost everyone said they accessed a variety of news sources.
The biggest difference in news and information habits between vaccine-hesitant and non-vaccine-hesitant participants was what the researchers called “selective media engagement” among vaccine-hesitant participants.
Although nearly everyone surveyed went online at least daily, and almost everyone said they consumed content across multiple media, mediums, and platforms, open-minded adults were less likely to engage with right-leaning “new media” channels and significantly less likely to obtain information from non-authoritative sources such as alternative health providers, online health influencers, and alternative medicine newsletters.
The findings suggest that reliance on doctors for health information has emerged as a strong protective effect against vaccine hesitancy, and that to improve vaccination rates, health communicators need to address where and how Americans find information about vaccines.
”As public health becomes increasingly polarized, understanding people’s attitudes toward vaccines is important, and this study suggests that people’s media preferences play a major role in influencing those attitudes.” said co-lead author Amelia Jamison, an associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University who studies health communication.
Sammy Said, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University, is the other co-lead author.
sauce:
Reference magazines:
Jamison, AM; Others. (2026). MMR vaccine hesitancy in a polarized information ecosystem: Results from a cross-sectional survey of U.S. adults. vaccine. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2026.128568. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X26003762?dgcid=coauthor
