Vaccine Hesitancy Webinar Series, Part 1: From Parents’ Refusal to COVID Vaccines

Healthcare decisions are deeply personal. Yet infectious disease reveals how our personal choices inevitably affect others. Drawing on more than a decade of research, sociologist Jennifer Reich explains how current perceptions of vaccines and scientific expertise have led individuals to see vaccines for themselves or their children as unnecessary or even risky. Rather than seeing those who reject vaccines as ignorant, anti-science, selfish, or delusional, this talk explores how vaccine hesitancy and refusal are in many ways logical responses to the cultural pressures placed on parents. The talk concludes by considering why vaccines work best when used by a critical mass of people and how we might encourage a culture of shared responsibility that in turn could increase participation in public health interventions like immunization, and thus lead to healthier communities. Please join PACHC on April 26 at 12:00 pm for part one of a three-part vaccine hesitancy webinar series, From Parents’ Refusal to COVID Vaccines: Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy, Community Health, and Trust, featuring Jennifer Reich, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology at University of Colorado Denver, researcher and award-winning author.