Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released findings that the rate of childhood vaccinations from January to April of this year were far lower than the same period last year. Families seem to continue to worry about the safety of the office environment with the pandemic. Clearly, there is work to be done to educate families about all the steps we are taking so that they can safely come to the office for timely immunization. But even before the pandemic occurred, vaccine hesitancy was still a problem. Kempe et al (10.1542/peds.2019-3852) share with us an analysis of a survey developed by the World Health Organization that the authors modified and sent to over 4,000 families with children in the United States, with a 49% response rate. The authors were interested in comparing the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy and factors contributing to that hesitancy for both routine childhood and influenza vaccination. The findings are concerning.
While 1 in 15 parents were hesitant about routine childhood vaccines, 1 in 4 were hesitant about the influenza vaccine. The authors also share reasons that survey respondents were hesitant. These included concerns about side effects, safety, and efficacy. To help us take action on these findings, we invited a commentary from infectious disease specialists Drs. Annabelle de St. Maurice (UCLA) and Kathryn Edwards (Vanderbilt) (10.1542/peds.2020-1770) who note the worrisome prevalence of vaccine hesitancy reported in the Kempe et al study and provide us with action steps we can take in the office to help families overcome their unfounded concerns. There is a lot of useful information that both the authors of the study and commentary inject into their articles, so boost your immunity to vaccine hesitancy by checking both out to learn more.
