Vaccine advocacy 101 [Aetiology]

I recently finished a 2-year stint as an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. It’s an excellent program–ASM pays all travel expenses for lecturers, who speak at ASM Branch meetings throughout the country. I was able to attend Branch meetings from California and Washington in the West, to Massachusetts in the east, and south as far as El Paso, Texas, with many in-between. Each Lecturer selects several topics to speak on, and the Branch chooses from those which they want to hear. Mine included basic research (zoonotic disease, antibiotic resistance) as well as science outreach and advocacy topics (zombies, vaccines).

My talk on vaccines covered vaccine hesitancy and denial, the concerns some parents have regarding vaccination, and the way social media and celebrities contributed to the spread of vaccine misinformation. Inevitably, someone would ask in the Q&A or speak to me afterward inquiring, “But what can I do? I don’t feel I know enough about why people reject vaccines, and feel helpless to combat the fears and misinformation that is out there.” These were audiences of microbiologists and other types of infectious disease specialists–people who are very likely to be educated about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, but who may not have followed the saga of disgraced former physician Andrew Wakefield, or aren’t familiar with the claims of the current anti-vaccine documentary, Vaxxed, or other common anti-vaccine talking points.

To help fill this gap, I recently published a paper in Open Forum Infectious Diseases,” Vaccine Rejection and Hesitancy: a Review and Call to Action.” As the title suggests, in it I give a brief overview of some of the figures in the anti-vax movement and the arguments they commonly use. I don’t go into rebuttals directly within the paper, but the supplemental information includes a subset of both anti-vax literature as well as several published rebuttals to them that interested individuals can look up.

I also briefly review the literature on vaccine hesitancy. Who fears or rejects vaccines, why do they do so, and how might we reach them to change their minds? This is really an area where many individuals, even if they’re educated about vaccines and infectious disease, lack a lot of background. As I note in the paper, many science-minded people still think that it’s enough to just educate people about vaccines properly, and that will be enough. While accurate information is indeed important, for many individuals on the vaccine-hesitant spectrum, it’s not only about misinformation, but also about group identity, previous experience with the health care field, and much more.

Still, vaccine advocates can get involved in a number of way. One of the easiest is simply to discuss your own vaccine history in order to normalize it. I regularly post pictures of my own vaccinations on social media (including my public Facebook and Twitter accounts), and those of my kids*. In over 17 years of parenthood, their vaccinations have all been…boring. These “uneventful vaccination” stories are the ones which rarely get told, as the media focuses on “vaccine injury” stories, in which the injuries may or may not actually be caused by vaccines. Those interested in promoting vaccines can write letters to the editor, get involved with local physicians to speak with hesitant families, break out and be political about vaccine exemptions; there are a number of ways that we can work to encourage vaccination and keep our children and our communities healthy (again, explored in more detail in the manuscript).

I hope this paper will serve as a starting point for those who want to be a vaccine advocate, but just aren’t sure they know enough background, or know where or how to jump in. Whether you’re an expert in the area or not, everyone can do small things to encourage vaccines and demonstrate your trust in them. Those of us working in the area thank you in advance for your help.

Reference:

Smith TC. Vaccine Rejection and Hesitancy: a Review and Call to Action. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2017, in press.

*AKA, how to get your kids’ pictures into a scientific paper.