Talking about vaccines
Vaccine hesitancy is a growing threat to public health and learning to speak with patients (and parents of patients) about the importance--and the risks--of vaccines is crucial. Here are some resources to help navigate those conversations, in the clinic and with the general public.
Funding Opportunities
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research to Address Vaccine Hesitancy, Uptake, and Implementation among Populations that Experience Health Disparities | Notice Number: NOT-MD-22-006 | Expiration Date: January 08, 2023
Clinical Communication Resources
- Getting to YESTessie October shares her communication tip when it comes to vaccine hesitancy with your patient. Lead with curiosity. Be open to hearing your patients' perspectives without judgement. Watch the video (about two minutes) for more.
- Language that Works to Improve Vaccine Acceptance: Communications Cheat SheetCommunication tips, phrases to use more (and less) often, COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, and example language
- National Immunization Awareness Month: How to Address Vaccine MisconceptionsFrom The Rotation: a Himmelfarb Library blog
- Talking About Vaccines - Immunization Action Coalition"provide[s] medical professionals with background information and practical resources that will help them discuss immunization with concerned parents or patients."
Resources for Consumers
- Vaccine Education Center (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)Websites, videos, informational tear sheets, e-newsletters, webinars and speaker programs
- NIH Community Engagement Alliance: Vaccines"general information on vaccines and how the COVID-19 vaccine will work to protect those who get the vaccine and the people around them"
- Vaccine Information - Immunization Action Coalition (IAC)"Developed in consultation with CDC, this website for patients and parents presents straightforward information about vaccine-preventable diseases and their vaccines...[,] vaccines needed by age group, vaccine safety, and ... more than one hundred video clips."
- How to talk about vaccines (WHO)4 tips for having conversations about vaccination
Academic Articles
- Addressing vaccine hesitancy: Clinical guidance for primary care physicians working with parents Conclusion: Vaccine-hesitant parents who are on the fence far outnumber vaccine refusers; therefore, counseling this group might be more effective. Reasons behind vaccine hesitancy are complex and encompass more than just a knowledge deficit. As a trusted source of information on vaccines, family physicians play a key role in driving vaccine acceptance.
- Addressing vaccine hesitancy requires an ethically consistent health strategy Conclusion: Efforts to address vaccine hesitancy need to avoid simple reliance on either parental values or coercive public policies. To do this effectively requires increasing citizen engagement on vaccination to help inform a parent-centered approach and legitimize public policy measures. In addition, cultivating a more ethically consistent strategy means moving beyond the current silos of health ethics - clinical and public health ethics.
- AMA Journal of American Ethics: Vaccines and Ethics The January 2012 issue of the Journal of American Ethics, dedicated to the study of vaccines and ethics.
- Correcting vaccine misinformation: A failure to replicate familiarity or fear-driven backfire effects Individuals often continue to rely on misinformation in their reasoning and decision making even after it has been corrected. This is known as the continued influence effect, and one of its presumed drivers is misinformation familiarity. As continued influence can promote misguided or unsafe behaviours, it is important to find ways to minimize the effect by designing more effective corrections. It has been argued that correction effectiveness is reduced if the correction repeats the to-be-debunked misinformation, thereby boosting its familiarity. Some have even suggested that this familiarity boost may cause a correction to inadvertently increase subsequent misinformation reliance; a phenomenon termed the familiarity backfire effect. A study by Pluviano et al. (2017) found evidence for this phenomenon using vaccine-related stimuli. The authors found that repeating vaccine "myths" and contrasting them with corresponding facts backfired relative to a control condition, ironically increasing false vaccine beliefs. The present study sought to replicate and extend this study. We included four conditions from the original Pluviano et al. study: the myths vs. facts, a visual infographic, a fear appeal, and a control condition. The present study also added a "myths-only" condition, which simply repeated false claims and labelled them as false; theoretically, this condition should be most likely to produce familiarity backfire. Participants received vaccine-myth corrections and were tested immediately post-correction, and again after a seven-day delay. We found that the myths vs. facts condition reduced vaccine misconceptions. None of the conditions increased vaccine misconceptions relative to control at either timepoint, or relative to a pre-intervention baseline; thus, no backfire effects were observed. This failure to replicate adds to the mounting evidence against familiarity backfire effects and has implications for vaccination communications and the design of debunking interventions.
- First Do No Harm: Effective Communication About COVID-19 Vaccines Written by David A. Broniatowski of the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science.
- Risk Communication, Values Clarification, and Vaccination Decisions Risk communication and values clarification methods may contribute to increased vaccination intentions, which may, in turn, predict vaccination status if logistical barriers are also addressed.
- See Something, Say Something: Correction of Global Health Misinformation on Social Media Results show that algorithmic and social corrections are equally effective in limiting misperceptions, and correction occurs for both high and low conspiracy belief individuals. Recommendations for social media campaigns to correct global health misinformation, including encouraging users to refute false or misleading health information, and providing them appropriate sources to accompany their refutation, are discussed.
- A systematic review of communication interventions for countering vaccine misinformation This review identifies some promising communication strategies for addressing vaccine misinformation. Interventions should be further evaluated by measuring effects on vaccine uptake, rather than distal outcomes such as knowledge and attitudes, in quasi-experimental and real-life contexts.
- Vaccine Curriculum to Engage Vaccine-Hesitant Families: Didactics and Communication Techniques With Simulated Patient Encounter Our results showed that residents improved in self-competence and confidence in addressing vaccine concerns with vaccine-hesitant families. Following the curriculum, residents were all willing to engage vaccine-hesitant families when the opportunity arose. Furthermore, based on graded simulated patient encounters, our residents improved in multiple aspects of their knowledge, comfort, and counseling techniques.
Find more articles:
In 2022, the medical subject heading vaccination hesitancy was added for PubMed indexing.
Search PubMed for articles with vaccination hesitancy as a Major Topic.
Book recommendations
Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism by Call Number: RJ240 .H684 2018 *Humanities Collection, 1st FloorISBN: 9781421426600Publication Date: 2018-10-30
Vaccine Hesitancy and Social Media’s Role in Spreading Vaccine Misinformation. March 1, 2021
Covid-19 Vaccinations
- KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor: In Their Own Words, Six Months LaterAt the beginning of 2021 as vaccine distribution began in the U.S., KFF conducted interviews with a nationally representative sample of adults using open-ended questions to better understand public concerns around receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Six months later, we recontacted these individuals to find out whether they chose to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, their reasoning behind their decisions, and how they are feeling about their choice.
Resources for Educators
- Annals for Educators - January 2022: Clinical Practice PointsInfluenza Vaccine Uptake and Missed Opportunities
Use this article to review flu vaccination recommendations, discuss quality-of-care issues, list patient reasons for declining vaccinations, and role-play conversations to address patient concerns - Annals for Educators - February 2022Influenza-Related Morbidity in Pregnancy: A Call for Maternal Immunization
Review the vaccines that should and should not be administered during pregnancy; have learners role-play conversations
