Parents without a firm view on vaccination are twice as likely as those with fixed views to become hesitant after viewing anti-vaccination messages from influential politicians like Donald Trump, researchers say.

However, they’re equally as likely to be influenced positively by the AMA president’s statements in the media countering such messages, their study has found.

Researchers from UNSW’s Kirby Institute and School of Medicine surveyed more than 400 Australian parents on their vaccination views, both before and after watching media video clips of US president Donald Trump, Australian Senator Pauline Hanson and former AMA president Dr Michael Gannon.

Among the representative sample, 22% of parents said they were pro-vaccination, while 2% were anti-vaccination.