In a recent essay, pediatrician-scientist Peter Hotez proposes a focus on local data, improved benefit-risk communications, actively countering health disinformation, and state-level action to address anti-vaccine sentiment in the US.
Anti-vaccine sentiment isn’t going away any time soon. In a new opinion article published in Plos Global Public Health, professor Peter Hotez from Baylor College of Medicine, outlines key actions to stem the momentum of anti-vaccine advocates in the US over the next five years.
Anti-vaccine activities in the US transformed to become a politically charged movement during the COVID-19 pandemic as calls for health freedom characterized partisan political activism. In his recent opinion piece, Hotez argues that, as COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths decline, anti-vaccine attitudes have not decreased but merely shifted—toward childhood vaccinations. Vaccine hesitancy among parents for childhood vaccines is likewise politically divided, and the country has seen re-emergence of multiple preventable childhood illnesses, including whooping cough and measles. Recently, even polio has been detected in wastewater sampling.
Hotez warns that without urgent action, these isolated outbreaks of childhood illnesses may become regular breakthrough epidemics. He outlines short-term steps for researchers, policymakers, and communicators, including updating local-level data to identify pockets of vaccine hesitancy and focusing on state-level actions to maintain vaccination coverage. In addition, he calls for broader efforts to accurately communicate the risks of preventable illnesses and combat disinformation in real time. Instead of relying on the efforts of individual scientists to correct false information, Hotez proposes that a government-established credible website to debunk vaccine myths in easy-to-understand language.
The authors add: “Our vaccine ecosystem is fragile and the troubling rise in cases of measles, pertussis, and other illnesses requires enhanced measures to counter anti-vaccine activism. Critical steps include mapping of hotspot counties with significant vaccine exemptions, improved benefit-risk communication graphics, exposing disinformation, and implementing sound vaccine policies in state legislatures.”
