What is Vaccine Hesitancy?

Vaccine hesitancy is described as a phenomenon which needs to be understood. Vaccine hesitancy is a true fear that many well-educated parents experience. The World Health Organization has recognized vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats for 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk-XBsNsLDE

Parents believe that they will feel worse if they decide to vaccinate their child and the child experiences a side effect which the parent believes to be directly attributable to the vaccine; such as autism. Should their child experience an actual illness, such as measles, as a result of not having been vaccinated, the parent will not feel personal responsibility for this situation. They will instead view the resulting illness as the body’s natural response to the environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggtkzkoI3eM

Vaccine Hesitancy is believed to be a direct response to the successful eradication of diseases from vaccines . Since measles was all but eradicated in the 1970’s, it is difficult for a parent today to fear something they have never seen, versus autism which continues to receive a great deal of media attention despite any possible link to the MMR vaccine being scientifically disproved repeatedly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzxr9FeZf1g*******

The State of Texas has allowed its citizens to file non-medical exemptions for parents who believe that the government does not have a right to force them to vaccinate their children. Exemptions within Texas have increased 28- fold to 64,000 unvaccinated children enrolled in public schools as of 2018. Experts believe that these exemptions have lowered the Texas vaccination rate to below 92%. This may result in a 4000% increase in the number of Measles cases in the year 2019. That represents 400 cases of measles in EACH major city in Texas.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/917107?src

How do we educate the Vaccine Hesitant among us?

We need to listen to their concerns effectively-emphatize-educate