How Can Virologists Help Improve Public Trust in Vaccinations?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Rodney Rohde
In this program:
Public trust in vaccinations is down, but how can virologists help boost public trust? Medical laboratory scientist Dr. Rodney Rohde discusses factors at play in vaccine misinformation and vaccine hesitancy and ways that public trust can be rebuilt.
Transcript
Interviewer:
With the rise of vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, what communication strategies can virologists employ to build public trust in vaccination programs and promote vaccine uptake especially in times of emerging infectious diseases?
Dr. Rodney Rohde:
Yeah, this is another really difficult and complex question. And I think one of the things we all have to do is continue to understand that there's going to be ongoing misinformation and outright disinformation, it's out there, perhaps COVID played a part in that with all of the tactics around vaccine mandates and things like that, and just some of perhaps transparency issues from early on. I actually believed that one of the issues early on was I wish that public health and healthcare would have just simply stated, we don't actually understand everything about this virus. Some people did, some people didn't. You know, you can kind of go back and look at some of that. I think people were doing the best they could with the data they had, but I think that's a lesson, again, that we need to learn because when you roll out things and certain things aren't actually correct or you don't own it and just say, "You know, we're not sure, let's back up and rethink this." Then you start losing people and you lose their trust, and I think that's, unfortunately, what happened. But I think going forward, whether it's virologists or physicians or research scientists, and even leaders have a role, an active and accountable role in helping to create accurate science communication.
It's one of my passions. I've been doing it even before the pandemic, and it's going to take all hands on deck, and it's going to be difficult. Especially in the world of rapid fire information through social media and digital outlets, it's difficult to target...everything from AI to bots, to other things that are going to be able to spread misinformation rapidly. But we still need people that are experts, I think expertise matters, and we need to get those people out in front and talking, just like we're doing through this opportunity here with your promotion of this particular topic. And so that's part of it, is you need people telling stories, and that's what I've tried to illustrate with my students and others that I talk with, is that people like me, people that are scientists, people that are physicians, we can't always come out in front of a camera or in front of a...or write a journal article or a newspaper article or anything else, and do it in a way that is just spitting data at people and really difficult research information, we need to help the public understand that data and translate it. Translational health tactics are going to be really important going forward, so that you sit down and you work with people, sometimes it's one-on-one…
Interviewer:
Yes.
Dr. Rodney Rohde:
Where it has to take place, but when you can get a platform like this, and you can walk somebody diabetes or through a cancer diagnosis or how a PCR test works versus an at-home test, or why viruses don't care, whose political persuasion is in office, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.Slide 2 Viruses do not care, bacteria don't care, fungi don't care, they just don't, they live to amplify infect and move on, and the longer we confuse ourselves with misinformation and outright lies, the more problematic hesitancy is going to be. So we just need to get in front of that and put a stop to it.
Interviewer:
And I think there tends to be a trickle-down effect actually with vaccine hesitancy and misinformation in the medical field. Just to get an example, there has been a recent measles outbreak in Tampa where I live, and this is measles, an illness that has had a successful vaccine since what? The 1960s.
Dr. Rodney Rohde:
Yep.
Interviewer:
Not only that, but there's lots of research on it, there are even like specific vaccine schedules, like you can literally look up on the CDC website there's a well-researched vaccine. But we're starting to see, things kind of start to come back into our communities. This is Tampa, it's not a rural city, is not as if we're in a Third World country, so to speak.
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