A study in the journal Pediatrics reports that of the 4 separate vaccination messages used, none were able to change the mind of a so-called true believer (vaccine denialist). It is hard enough for those of us involved in vaccinology, public heath and medicine to counter the swathes of misinformation making the rounds, but the conclusions of this study deal yet another blow. How are we best able to give the best infectious disease prevention to populations with vaccines, if science, reason and rationality are not enough for some people (who cause breaks in the chain of pathogen protection)? This is particularly concerning to those of us working on research for parasite vaccines; a break through in the research yielding a vaccine for say malaria is still very different to effective utilization of said vaccine in a given population.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 07:22:39 +0000