Overcoming Vaccine Misinformation Requires Integrated Workflows and Multidisciplinary Education

This roundtable series, Clinical Insights: Childhood Vaccine Schedule Changes, discusses ongoing changes to the pediatric vaccine schedule, the inner workings of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and how these changes are affecting US public health.

In this episode, the panelists discuss socioeconomic factors and limited educational access, which drive significant disparities in vaccine uptake. They highlight that residents in vulnerable neighborhoods often lack awareness of newer immunizations—such as the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine—due to inconsistent primary care. However, safety net hospitals have achieved zero refusal rates by implementing multidisciplinary education strategies that begin during the prenatal period. Using community champions who share patients’ backgrounds is more effective than issuing top-down medical directives.

Ultimately, the experts argue that overcoming misinformation requires integrated workflows involving doctors, pharmacists, and nurses to empower patients through culturally relevant outreach.

This series features insights from a panel of health care professionals:

• Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir, PharmD, MPH, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy and antimicrobial resistance researcher at the University of California San Diego
• Sharon Nachman, MD, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, New York
• Mary Koslap-Petraco, DNP, PNP-BC, CPNP, clinical assistant professor at Stony Brook University School of Nursing in New York
• William Schaffner, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee

View the full series here on Contagion Live.