The big picture in addressing vaccine hesitancy

Public acceptance of vaccination has never been a given. Today there is a set of societal circumstances that may contribute to a growing parental hesitancy about vaccination. These include: increasingly ‘crowded’ vaccination schedules; lower prevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases; greater access to, and more rapid dissemination of, vaccine-critical messages via digital networks; hyper-vigilance of parents in relation to children and risk; and an increasingly consumerist orientation to healthcare.