Abstract
Abstract The recent decline in vaccination rates across Europe has led to outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles. Although there have always been persons opposed to vaccination, in recent years an increasing number of parents are losing confidence in or are being complacent about vaccinating their children. Given the accessibility of information on the internet, parents are actively and independently researching vaccines. They are exposed to negative claims about vaccines that appeal to their emotions and emotional stories tend make parents doubt vaccinations. By contrast, most positive vaccine messages focus on providing information through scientific data which has proven to be ineffective for some hesitant parents.Vaccine hesitancy can only be understood by looking at it from different perspectives and by exchanging knowledge between multiple fields of study. A transdisciplinary approach, in which individuals with different backgrounds search for solutions together, is necessary to be able to provide one or more solutions to the problem. Therefore, we spent eight months trying to solve part of this wicked <target target-type="page-num" id="p-93"/>problem from a transdisciplinary perspective. Based on literature reviews of different topics within vaccine hesitancy, interviews with hesitant parents, interactions with various stakeholders within and outside academia, and analyses of popular views on social media concerning vaccines, we question the effectiveness of the current pro-vaccine approaches. We also suggest adopting ‘storytelling’ that incorporates scientific data to inform parents and we argue that narratives are intrinsically persuasive as they are easier to understand and could prove more effective than traditional scientific communication. We expect that this strategy will contribute to the increase in and maintenance of high vaccination coverage rates and stop the circulation and outbreak of vaccine preventable diseases.
Highlights
Background of the challengeApart from running water and hygiene, vaccines are the best preventive medical invention/intervention that have worldwide impacted significantly on morbidity and mortality and their effect can hardly be overestimated
We suggest adopting ‘storytelling’ that incorporates scientific data to inform parents and we argue that narratives are intrinsically persuasive as they are easier to understand and could prove more effective than traditional scientific communication
The recent decline in vaccination rates across Europe has led to outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles
Summary
Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains. Lifehackercom. 2018. As a result more parents refuse to have their children vaccinated or postpone essential vaccination to a later, mostly undefined, age This hesitancy has led to a decrease in vaccination coverage in different countries and has given rise to new epidemics of vaccine preventable diseases which we thought had been eliminated, such as measles. We argued for a better understanding of vaccine hesitant parents who refused to vaccinate their children fearing the unverified side-effects vaccines might have This was important given the return of vaccine preventable diseases as seen in the case of 35 deaths and a three-fold increase in measles cases across Europe. This in turn contributed towards reduced vaccine coverage in several European states To counter this trend, we argued that pro-vaccine messages need to use ‘storytelling’ and personal narratives to convey facts effectively in a manner that spoke to the concerns of hesitant parents. Tell them a story because stories speak to the heart
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