…In the United States, about 20% of parents are hesitant about vaccines — one reason for an outbreak of measles this year that has killed three unvaccinated people.
Public-health specialists worry that these trends could worsen, in part because of the influence of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has repeatedly questioned the safety of vaccines and inaccurately connected them to autism.
The first thing to do if someone expresses uncertainty about vaccines to you, say researchers, is not to judge or dismiss them. Instead, researchers agree, it’s best to actively listen, ask questions and be curious about what’s behind the concerns. “Once we know what the issues are, what specific barriers are, then we can address them, one by one,” says Mohammad Sharif Razai, a public-health researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK.
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It might sound obvious, but researchers say that it’s important in a conversation to provide information or opinions. “You need to elicit the concerns and then share accurate, reliable information,” Razai says.
