A new national public opinion, commissioned by Research!America and the American Society for Microbiology, polled 1,004 U.S. adults in May 2018.
Here are seven key survey findings:
1. Ninety-five percent of Americans believe infectious and emerging diseases in other countries will pose a "major" or "minor" threat to the U.S. in the next few years,
2. Around 61 percent of Americans say they are confident the federal government can prevent a major infectious disease outbreak in the U.S.
3. While 34 percent agree the global community will experience an epidemic in the next 10 years that will affect U.S. residents, only 28 percent think the global community is prepared to respond to another epidemic like Ebola.
4. Seventy percent of Americans say vaccines are very important to the health of our society, a 10 percent drop from a similar survey commissioned in 2008.
5. Approximately, 71 percent of respondents said it is 'very important' for parents to have their children vaccinated.
6. Fifty-three percent said they did not get the flu vaccine during the last flu season; of which, 48 percent said they do not trust the flu vaccine, 40 percent said they do not feel they need it to prevent the flu and 26 percent said the flu vaccine is not effective and therefore not worth getting.
7. Only 21 percent said they recall hearing anything about a universal flu vaccine.