We have moved beyond burning witches and lynching wrong-doers. So we should also stop shaming unvaccinated people. There are better ways to change behaviour.
Health care providers are just one trusted source of information for parents on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for children.
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Jaime Sidani, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences; Beth Hoffman, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences, and Maya Ragavan, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences
Pediatricians and other health care providers can take some concrete steps toward building trust and counteracting anti-vaccination misinformation.
Using trusted messengers, making sure that vaccine information is tailored to those being targeted, and greater flexibility over vaccination timing and venues could all increase uptake.
Vaccine hesitancy poses significant risks for those refusing to be vaccinated. The more people get vaccinated, the better the chances of living with the virus.
A group of protesters stands inside the Utah State Capitol in 2016, criticizing a proposal to make polygamy a felony again.
Rick Bowmer/AP
It was the biases of its ‘first world’ which prevented South Africa from mobilising the energies and talents of most of its people against COVID-19.
Kenya national rugby union team supporters, like these celebrating victory over Germany, face a compulsory vaccine mandate.
Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
Thousands took to streets across Australia to protest COVID19 lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. How are white supremacist and right wing groups capitalising on vaccine hesitancy?
Through their vaccination choices, parents are often communicating not just what they think, but also who they are.
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Vaccination uptake is influenced by many factors and carries a variety of meanings – social, political, economic, ideological, moral as well as biological.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers implied he was vaccinated against COVID-19 when he was not, and made statements about the vaccines based on misinformation.
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
NFL star Aaron Rodgers has amplified dangerous and disproven myths about the COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s why his statements are not only untrue, but also harmful because they spread misinformation.
Vaccine hesitancy has been a growing challenge for more than a decade. Concerns about vaccine safety and adverse events are the most commonly cited reasons.
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
To help increase trust in vaccines, researchers analyzed data on adverse events to address safety concerns, and then used cognitive science to show how cognitive biases feed vaccine hesitancy.
Almost 90% of the care-home workforce is already vaccinated.
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Struggling with a a fragile healthcare system, remote populations and widespread fear of the vaccine, COVID is running rampant in PNG. Australia has done much to help, but is it enough?
Carter Giglio, 8, joined by service dog Barney of Hero Dogs, shows off the bandage over his injection site after being vaccinated at Children’s National Hospital in Washington.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
An infectious diseases doctor reviews the evidence, discusses hesitancy and concerns about side-effects and explains the overwhelming case for vaccinating five-to-11-year-olds, including his own son.
Public health officials need to know where to focus their vaccination outreach efforts.
AP Photo/Teresa Crawford
Machine learning algorithms can help public health officials identify areas of high vaccine hesitancy by ZIP code to better target messaging and outreach and counter misinformation.
Ethics are important to vaccination decisions because while science can clarify some of the costs and benefits, it cannot tell us which costs and benefits matter most to us.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
When making the decision whether to vaccinate children aged five to 11 against COVID-19, regulators in Canada must rely on sound ethics as well as sound science.
Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Senior Scientist, Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Honorary researcher, Division of Social & Behavioural Sciences, School of Public Health, UCT, South African Medical Research Council
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford