Maintaining the Public's Trust in Immunizations: A New IDSA Initiative

The Role of the Vaccine Initiative

Given the many new immunizations in development and evolving immunization recommendations, there is an ongoing need for balanced, credible information on vaccines. It is especially important to communicate well to groups who affect both public and individual decisions on vaccination: legislators, health care providers, journalists and third-party groups concerned with immunization issues.

The Vaccine Initiative's goal is to provide these groups with the tailored information they need, information that effectively explains the benefits and risk of immunization, distinguishes proven scientific facts from unproven hypotheses and helps them determine the credibility of various information sources and the "evidence" they put forth.

Each of these key audiences looks at information on vaccines in a slightly different way. Policy makers face decisions about protecting the public against infectious diseases. Physicians and other health care providers need information that can help them communicate more effectively with patients about the benefits and risks of immunization. Journalists need expert input from credible sources to help them write balanced stories and provide the public with the best medical knowledge available. And third-party groups need materials to share with their members to help educate others in their community.

The Vaccine Initiative will serve as an independent resource to provide scientifically based information on immunizations to each of these groups.

Research Underway

Audience research is the foundation of effective communication efforts. The Vaccine Initiative is taking a three-pronged approach:

Qualitative research including a total of 19 focus groups with parents in six cities. The focus groups addressed specific issues of communication by the media on vaccines, as well as more general immunization topics.
A national survey of parents and expectant parents is currently underway.
A survey of the health committees that consider immunization issues in state legislatures is underway.

This research is designed to assess perceptions of the value, safety and efficacy of vaccines and to help us understand how our audiences approach the issue and deal with controversies in their own minds. The survey research will also provide a baseline against which to measure progress.

The Future

The audiences for this issue are many and varied--even within the four specified as the Vaccine Initiative's intended audiences. Therefore, it is a priority for the initiative to foster alliances and partnerships with organizations that already work in this arena and that are dedicated to improving Americans' health and preventing diseases.

April 1999