*Flashback Friday*
*This post originally appeared on The PediaBlog on September 17, 2019.
Who Will You Trust?
First, the good news: A nationwide survey of more than 1,500 adults found that a huge majority — 84% — support rules requiring schoolchildren to be immunized against vaccine-preventable childhood diseases. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that, according to the poll, 13% of American adults are skeptical about vaccine efficacy and safety and, therefore, opposed to such requirements. After all, other polls have shown that many Americans believe Earth is flat (2%), the Moon landings were fakedon a Hollywood soundstage (6%), and climate change is a hoaxperpetrated by greedy, scheming climate scientists (7%). (For what it’s worth: As I write this, it seems about a quarter of my “Twitterverse” (an unscientific sampling to be sure) believes Big Ben is faking his season-ending elbow injury. “No one saw it happen!” I’ve been reading. Go figure.)
Here’s the bad news: The same survey, conducted this summer by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that 54% of adults agree with pediatricians that vaccines are “very safe” — a majority, but still… A sizable number of sampled participants said vaccines are “not very” or “not safe at all” (8%).
As local communities, cities, and entire states consider removing personal exemptions from school-mandated immunization policies, Robert Preidt says it all comes down to trust:
Respondents also have little trust in the information about vaccine safety coming from public health agencies. Thirty-seven percent say they have a “great deal” of trust in the agencies; 47% “somewhat trust” them, and 15% have “little” or “no trust.”
“The public’s limited trust in both childhood vaccines and public health agencies makes room for anti-vaccine sentiment in exemption policy debates,” said Gillian SteelFisher, director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program.
It is interesting, although maybe not surprising, that when compared to young respondents between the ages of 18-34, people 65 and older were more likely to consider vaccines “very safe” and vaccine safety information from public health agencies trustworthy.
Of course, the issue of vaccine efficacy and safety isn’t about personal feelings or political mandates. Reassuringly, it is about biochemistry, microbiology, epidemiology, and objective (peer-reviewed) data. And despite what fake experts peddling logical fallacies, cherry-picked talking points, and conspiracy theories may announce in the court of public opinion, it is science that consistently and repeatedly supports the facts: vaccines are effective in preventing a whole host of dangerous infectious diseases that harm mostly children, and vaccines are very safe.
Pediatricians are highly trusted among health care professionals. We need to do a better job in translating the clear scientific consensus to parents — and sustain with each family an ongoing, constructive dialog about the need for safe, effective, and on-time vaccinations throughout childhood — in order to achieve better immunization rates in children.
source http://www.thepediablog.com/2021/09/17/flashback-friday-172/
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