Media controversy and vaccines

Abstract

Welcome to Public Health Moment from the University of Minnesota. News coverage about laws mandating a vaccine that protects against the potentially cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) may lead to public opposition. The vaccine is widely supported by the medical and public health communities. Yet state laws to require young girls to be vaccinated as a requirement for middle school attendance have aroused controversy. University of Minnesota Public Health researcher Sarah Gollust led a study regarding this issue. <Gollust: “I think it’s important to understand how media’s description of controversy might influence opinion about vaccines, because we know there’s been increasing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, like Whooping Cough. And experts believe that these outbreaks are caused, at least in part, by parents who decide not to vaccinate their children. We found that when people here that there is controversy over state laws to require the HPV vaccine for young girls, they are less likely to support such laws. But we found in our study that describing the HPV vaccine as controversial does not lead people to believe that other vaccines are unsafe or unimportant for children’s health.”> Gollust recommends that journalists and researchers emphasize where consensus exists on the value of a particular vaccine. <Gollust: “So, we think that journalists can try to emphasize scientific agreement where it exists. And health professionals could also do their part in working with the media to describe where there’s moderate opinions, rather than only describing where opinions might be particularly polarized.”> For Public Health Moment, I’m Mark Engebretson.