REPUBLICANS LAWMAKERS DROVE 86% OF ANTI-VACCINE BILLS, STUDY FINDS

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Republicans have sponsored 86 percent of anti-vaccine bills since COVID, and some are already becoming law.

Though the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic peaked six years ago, the global health catastrophe left chaos in its wake, contributing to chronic illnesses, unemployment and, of course, intensifying fears around vaccines.

Prior to 2020, anti-vaccine sentiment was often positioned as a personal preference or stance, but due to fears about the COVID-19 vaccine's comparatively hasty development in 2021, and several cases of illness and death resulting from it, anti-vaccine sentiment transformed into a fully-fledged movement. Now, a new study which explored the political undertones of that movement has pinpointed exactly who pushes the most anti-vaccine sentiment in the U.S., through legal measures that could have a ripple effect on public health.

Republican lawmakers were responsible for 86 percent of anti-vaccine bills introduced across state legislatures in the years following the onset of the pandemic, according to Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Researchers found evidence that the anti-vaccine sentiment once confined to individual belief and public discourse has migrated into statehouses, reshaping the legal landscape around immunization across the country.

"The findings are not surprising," Dr. Anahita Dua, founder of Healthcare for Action, told Newsweek. "One of the lasting consequences of the pandemic is that vaccines, like many aspects of healthcare, became viewed through a political lens instead of a scientific one.

"As a physician, that's deeply concerning because viruses, bacteria, and disease do not recognize party affiliation, but only biology."

Vaccine Hesitancy in the U.S.

The findings, published in American Journal of Public Health, come amid a fraught national reckoning over vaccine safety.

Despite overwhelming evidence supporting the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, several people in the U.S. died after receiving them, for a variety of reasons, deaths that have been seized upon by vaccine skeptics and have fed broader hesitancy toward other long-established vaccines for children, adults and even pets.

A Newsweek illustration depicting debate around vaccines. Credit: NEWSWEEK

In some ways, that hesitancy has hardened into something closer to identity than opinion.

A 2021 study found that roughly 22 percent of Americans self-identify as "anti-vaxxers," embracing the label as a form of social identity rather than a private medical preference reached through discussion with physicians.

In Boston, the researchers categorized 1,513 vaccine-related bills introduced in state legislatures between 2019 and 2023, drawing on the State Vaccine Policy Project (SVPP).

In line with the social and political landscape, the volume of legislation exploded after 2020.

In 2019, state legislatures introduced 386 vaccine-related bills; by 2021, that number had ballooned to 1,154. Across the four-year period,

at least 40 percent of bills introduced in every full legislative cycle after the pandemic's start were concerned with the vaccine debate.

In deeper examination, the researchers found that nearly 82 percent of bills proposed by Democrats were pro-vaccine, compared with fewer than 10 percent that were anti-vaccine; Democratic lawmakers sponsored 54 percent of all pro-vaccine bills which support the increased access to or funding of vaccines across state legislatures.

Republicans moved in the opposite direction; more than 65 percent of bills were anti-vaccine.

"The scale of partisan polarization is striking," Harry Nelson, healthcare lawyer, author and public policy expert, told Newsweek. "Boston University's data changes our understanding of where the risk is. Vaccine hesitancy can no longer be thought of as merely a communications problem between doctors and patients, but rather an institutional issue, where state legislatures can expand exemptions, making it harder to respond to outbreaks.

"The fact that most of these bills did not pass is reassuring, but it should not lead to complacency. Vaccine skepticism has become a durable legislative movement rather than a temporary reaction to the pandemic."

Indeed, 24 percent of anti-vaccine bills introduced during the period gathered enough support to become law. Several states enacted measures expanding religious or personal-belief exemptions for childcare and school immunization requirements, along with laws barring employers from mandating certain vaccines in the workplace.

Boston's researchers suggest the surge in sponsorships is at least partly strategic, driven by election-minded Republican lawmakers courting anti-vaccine constituents who fashion themselves as champions of "medical freedom."

"Our work shows that state lawmakers affiliated with the Republican party are responsible for the overwhelming majority of anti-vaccine bills introduced in recent years," study corresponding author Dr. Matt Motta said in a statement. "While the majority of these bills do not actually pass, it's important to remember that we live in an increasingly connected world—one in which low vaccine coverage in one part of the country can get people sick thousands of miles away."

He elaborated on his work for Newsweek: "My hope is that these findings will increase attention to the importance that state governments play in the vaccine policymaking process, and how efforts to undo strong vaccine regulations could be taking place right in our own backyard. Many Americans are rightfully concerned about changes to the vaccine schedule, but most vaccine policymaking takes place at the state level. If folks are worried about protecting vaccine access and affordability, they need to pay close attention to what lawmakers in their state are doing each legislative cycle."

The team now plan to expand the SVPP dataset to cover a longer time span and to examine how public experiences with vaccination shape legislation, and vice versa. Newsweek reached out to the Republican Party of Texas and the White House for comment.

"Politics should never dictate medical decision-making," Dua said. "Public health policy should be grounded in rigorous scientific evidence, transparent data, and ongoing evaluation—not ideology.

"Vaccination is also not simply an individual healthcare decision. It is also a community health strategy that protects [those] whose immune systems cannot fully protect them. The broader lesson for the public is not that one political party is right or wrong. It is that medicine works best when it is allowed to remain independent of partisan politics."

Nelson added: "COVID-19 fused together several already-sensitive issues including personal autonomy, government power, and distrust of pharmaceutical companies. Vaccines stopped being viewed solely as medical products and became symbols in a broader argument.

That said, we should distinguish between reasonable scrutiny of a vaccine, opposition to a particular mandate, and a generalized legislative agenda that weakens routine immunization."

Reference

Motta, M., Callaghan, T. (2026). Quantifying the Polarization of Vaccine Policymaking Across State Legislatures. American Journal of Public Health. Quantifying the Polarization of Vaccine Policymaking Across State Legislatures | AJPH | Vol. Issue.

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