
It’s National Infant Immunization Week (yay)! To celebrate, we interviewed Dr. Michelle Fiscus, Chief Medical Officer at the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM). Dr. Fiscus helps inform AIM’s products, strategies, and policies to “establish a nation free of vaccine-preventable disease” — and on top of that, she’s a board-certified pediatrician with more than 30 years of experience.
Vaccination — especially childhood vaccination — is one of the greatest success stories of health care and public health. For Dr. Fiscus, it’s easy to see why: “We don’t see families having to have 10 kids anymore because half of them might die from whooping cough and other vaccine-preventable diseases.” Yet, on some level, the massive success of widespread vaccination has allowed vaccine hesitancy to take hold in recent years. “We don’t see the devastating effects of certain diseases anymore,” Dr. Fiscus explains. “Not long before I began my medical training, our emergency rooms were full of children suffering from meningitis as a result of Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b) infection.” Since the Hib vaccine became available in 1985, cases of the disease have dropped by 99 percent in the U.S.. Many other childhood diseases saw similar drops in cases once vaccines became broadly available.
For many of us, this data tells a clear and compelling story. But vaccine communication and vaccine uptake still face persistent challenges. Dr. Fiscus has 5 actionable strategies to help health communicators move the needle:
- Don’t underestimate the “movable middle.” “Very few people are truly anti-vaccine,” Dr. Fiscus says. “Everyone else is on a spectrum of acceptance.” People have different levels of questions and concerns about vaccination — and when we address the issues they care about, they’re more likely to be receptive. Dr. Fiscus reminds us to focus on common ground and shared purpose, especially when it comes to childhood vaccination. “The vast majority of parents are trying to do what’s in the best interest of their children,” she says. “We are too — we’re just coming at it from different perspectives.”
- Partner with trusted messengers. When people have questions or doubts, trust becomes that much more important. “Make sure that people are getting your messages from someone they can identify with,” Dr. Fiscus says. That might be their doctor, a community or religious leader, or even someone who lives in their area or shares common attributes or interests.
- Use data to draw comparisons. As public health folks, we know vaccines are the best option we have to prevent certain diseases. But we also know that simply presenting the facts — even if we have the data to support them — isn’t enough to change many people’s minds (or behaviors). Instead, put the data in perspective: “Across the lifespan, there’s only a 1 in 150,000 chance that you’ll get killed by lightning — but no one would let their kids play outside in a thunderstorm,” Dr. Fiscus says. “But there’s a 1 in 500 chance that a child with measles will die from the disease. Yet some of us are willing to take that risk. That’s where data can be helpful in pointing out the difference in perceived risk.”
- Tap into the power of storytelling. “Real stories resonate with people who are questioning,” Dr. Fiscus says. “Maybe they’ve heard that someone they know, however far removed, had a bad reaction or developed a health problem after getting a vaccine. That one anecdote might carry more weight than a doctor giving them a statistic.” To match the emotional weight of an anecdote, health communicators need to tell our own stories. “We need to humanize the science,” Dr. Fiscus says. “For example, when I was in practice, I took care of a perfectly healthy 8-year-old who died of complications from the flu. That was a child who lived in my town, a child with a name and a family.”
- Draw parallels to non-vaccine related situations. “A lot of what we’re fighting right now is medical freedom vs. public health. Personal freedom vs. what’s right for your community,” Dr. Fiscus says. COVID-19 showed us that the idea of getting vaccinated to keep others healthy can be a hard sell. To bolster that argument, we can compare vaccines to widely accepted social norms and laws designed to protect everyone. “In reality, there are a lot of things that the government tells people they can’t do. You’re not allowed to drive drunk — because doing so could kill you, but also because it could kill someone else,” Dr. Fiscus points out. “Yet we don’t see a lot of advocacy around removing drunk driving laws.” Drawing these parallels might encourage people to stop and think.
None of these strategies are likely to convince a person with strong anti-vaccine sentiments. But remember, most people are somewhere in the movable middle — and if we can combine effective health messaging with other important strategies, like communicating with empathy, we can make an impact.
But in this destabilizing moment, Dr. Fiscus’ most important message for health communicators might be this one: “Don’t give up. We’re watching in real time as many of the public health advancements we’ve worked for are being dismantled — but remember that this won’t last forever. This period we’re in right now, in the arc of a lifetime, is really just a blip. We will get past it. We need to keep doing the hard work, try different things, and learn as much as we can — so that whenever we find a little crack in the door, we can get in and start to make a difference.”
The bottom line: We’re constantly challenged to build vaccine confidence and counter mis- and disinformation — but by combining effective messaging with empathy, health communicators can help to increase vaccine uptake. And we’re so thankful organizations like AIM are here to help guide us.
Copy/paste to share on social (and tag us!): This week, CommunicateHealth talked with Dr. Michelle Fiscus at @AIMimmunization about vaccine communication strategies that work. Check out our conversation: https://communicatehealth.com/wehearthealthliteracy/voices-from-the-field-dr-michelle-fiscus-association-of-immunization-managers/ #HealthLiteracy #HealthComm