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Sunday, May 8, 2022 10:15 AM – 12:15 PM ET Room A105–106
Vaccine Acceptance: Lessons from the Past and Tools for the Future
Sponsored by the AAI Committee on Public Affairs
Chair
- Peter E. Jensen, Univ. of Utah Sch. of Med., AAI Committee on Public Affairs Chair
Speakers
- Richard M. Carpiano, Professor of Public Policy, Univ. of California, Riverside, Why people vaccinate: social, behavioral, and policy considerations
- Akiko Iwasaki, HHMI, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale Sch. of Med., Disinformation and information that fuel vaccine hesitancy
Vaccines have long been one of the most effective tools to combat infectious diseases, saving countless lives since the development of the first vaccine against smallpox in the late 18th century. Because of vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, polio has been eliminated in the United States, and other deadly diseases including rubella, pertussis, and measles are now preventable. Despite this evidence, concerns about the safety or efficacy of vaccines persist. The problem of waning vaccine acceptance has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although scientists have developed remarkably safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 in record time, and several have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, far too many eligible Americans remain unvaccinated. Concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy, widespread misinformation and disinformation about vaccines, and the politicization of public health recommendations have hampered the acceptance of these lifesaving tools, posing an increasingly serious threat to individual lives and global public health.
This session will feature experts who will discuss lessons learned about vaccine acceptance, the challenges that lie ahead, and how we as members of the broader biomedical research community can effectively communicate with the public. A question-and-answer period will follow the formal presentations.
