Child Vaccine Experts Urge Caution with ‘Anti-Vax’ Label

Parents Flooded with Misinformation Amid Changes to Trusted Sources Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Alok Patel, Dr. Mona Amin and Politico health reporter Lauren Gardner discuss the CDC ACIP decision on child vaccines. by Anne Godlasky, National Press Foundation The year is ending with shockwaves for those invested in children’s health. The Washington Post reported this week that the Department of Health & Human Services terminated millions of dollars’ worth of grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and earlier this month the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) changed the child vaccine schedule to delay the hepatitis B vaccine. “This is a major step back for children and for public health,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a voting member of the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee and a former member of ACIP. ACIP, whose members had been replaced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year, changed the universal birth dose standard that had been in place since 1991. The AAP and American Medical Association both came out against the change, and the AAP had also diverged from the FDA’s COVID vaccine recommendations earlier this year. “This is going to have a huge trickle effect, not only for the confusion amongst parents, but also for how healthcare providers are going to be able to practice medicine given the fact that we’re now going to have to have these longer conversations,” said Dr. Mona Amin of PedsDocTalk. Combatting vaccine misinformation, hesitancy Confusion now is spurred not by a new outbreak, like COVID, or new scientific evidence but rather misinformation, experts said. And misinformation has proven challenging to debunk for doctors and journalists alike. “The first step that I personally take … is I try to listen first and figure out where exactly the misinformation is stemming from,” Dr. Alok Patel, a pediatric hospitalist and clinical associate professor at Stanford Medicine, said of talking with parents. “One big disservice I think that we have done … is labeling vaccine-hesitant parents with anti-vaccine. There is a scientific process of being skeptical about asking questions, and if parents do that, I try not to put them into this bucket of anti-vaccine.” Amin takes a similar approach in her practice. “I found that by meeting with compassion, answering their questions, giving the facts … they trust it, and it’s just really eye-to-eye conversation and meeting them where their heart lands,” Amin said. It backfires, she said, if doctors take the opposite approach, such as: “OK, well, you’re an anti-vaxxer, you’re not listening.’ And then they dismiss or they leave. And that is not what is getting people to actually vaccinate.” After listening, Patel often finds himself in the position of explaining stories vs. statistics. “People tend to look at this one little cherry-picked story and use that to kind of cast this wide net,” Patel said. “All of a sudden this one emotional anecdote has taken over the airwaves and it’s getting shared on social media.” It’s an issue Politico health policy reporter Lauren Gardner has identified as well. “There’s a broader push by the public, particularly on social media, to invoke these sort of anecdotes that don’t necessarily have data to back them up, but are being cited by people as reasons to be more skeptical of vaccines,” Gardner said. “There is a reason why this stuff is gaining traction, and a lot of it is because it kind of catches fire on social media.” Trust and Sourcing It’s a reminder to verify your sources, which may mean going beyond tradition. Speakers: - Dr. Paul A. Offit, Director, Vaccine Education Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia - Dr. Mona Amin, Pediatrician, PedsDocTalk - Lauren Gardner, Reporter, Politico - Dr. Alok Patel, Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Stanford Medicine Summary, transcript and resources: https://nationalpress.org/topic/child-vaccine-experts-urge-caution-with-anti-vax-label/ This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios. This webinar is sponsored by Vaccinate Your Family, a nonprofit that for more than 30 years has championed vaccine access, education and advocacy. NPF is solely responsible for its content.