Vaccine Skepticism

Background: Vaccines have been one of the most beneficial developments of modern, scientific medicine as evidenced by the dramatic decline in infection rates when an effective vaccine is available. But they have been victims of their own success as people forget the severity of past infectious diseases. Since 2000, vaccine hesitancy, skepticism, and refusal has become a growing public health concern. With one or more Covid-19 vaccines on the horizon, combatting vaccine misinformation and responding to peoples’ concerns will be a challenge for health care providers. As a future health care provider, you will need to be able to communicate effectively about vaccines with your patients. Read the article linked below, answer the questions, and complete the additional requirements. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/health/anti-vaccination-movement-us.html (Pre-Covid article on vaccine skepticism in the U.S.) A. Your Original Post: 1a. Identify and explain the EXTERNAL factors that have contributed to the rise of vaccine skepticism / hesitancy. By external, I mean some event, piece of information, data, story, anecdote or report that has contributed to negative perceptions of vaccines. 1b. Identify and explain the INTERNAL factors that influence people’s decision-making about vaccines. By internal I am referring to things like an individual’s decision-making process, use of critical thinking, use and analysis of data, influence of emotions or other factors that influence an individual’s perceptions and decision-making. 2. Tie the information to course concepts by explaining, as you would to a patient, how vaccines work in promoting personal and herd immunity. 3a. Provide a link and a summary of a current and substantive article which is relevant to the topic of vaccines. With Covid-19, there are many of these lately, but be sure you pick an article that goes into some depth, not just a quick update. Your summary should provide enough information about the article as a whole that a person who had not read the article could understand what the article is about. Also include statement analyzing the validity of the article and the information it contains, including identifying the type of publication that the article appears in and its intended audience. 3b. Post a substantive question based your article which could form the basis for further exploration and learning.