The sentence I’m recommending for new vaccine hesitancy.

Because of misinformation from Secretary Kennedy’s HHS, bedside conversations on vaccines are already changing. Here's one approach that may help.

Just a quick dispatch on this Christmas Day—and my best wishes to all who celebrate. As you gather with your family, your conversations may at some point turn to vaccines. If so, and you encounter those who are skeptical or hesitant in light of the recent and regrettable politicization of vaccines, I sincerely hope that what follows will be of service to you.

Thanks for helping me spread reliable medical information! I truly couldn’t do it without you.

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Recently, I asked a labor and delivery (L&D) unit nurse whether she had noticed any change in parents of newborns’ acceptance of the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Her answer—disturbing though not shocking—was yes. Starting almost immediately after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly installed CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to stop recommending the hepatitis B birth dose for all newborns (replacing it with “shared decision-making” for mothers with negative tests for the virus earlier in pregnancy), parents’ attitudes conspicuously changed, practically overnight, she said. Before the vote, this nurse said she would often go months without running into parents refusing the hepatitis B birth dose for their infant. But in the weeks since the vote at ACIP’s meeting in early December, she is now encountering initial refusals “multiple times per week.”

Fortunately, after some counseling, many or most of the parents are still convinced to do the right thing, she told me, opting to provide their infants with protection against a virus that frequently causes chronic liver disease in those who become infected before being vaccinated. (As I told Anderson Cooper on CNN recently, the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine virtually eliminated infant infections in the United States, while the prior strategy of targeted vaccinations for high-risk families had failed to contain the problem.)

Now, this particular nurse works in a region that is a politically “Blue” stronghold. So, it’s alarming that parents have developed new suspicion toward such a safe and effective vaccine so soon after the ACIP vote but also reassuring that, with a little bit of counseling, most of them remain persuadable.

Still, she asked me for advice. “What should I tell these people?”

I thought about it for a moment and improvised an answer. I suggested that when asked about the hepatitis B vaccine, she say, “the politics have changed, but the science has not.”

The idea is to convey that we are the ones following the data—and that nothing in that realm has changed. This line may not work in all cases, but I hoped that it might help in at least some.

This evening, I received an email from that nurse. With permission, I’m sharing it with you here.

Hi Dr. Faust,

Just wanted to let you know that I used your line, “The science hasn’t changed; it’s the politics that have changed,” with a patient on L&D tonight who was refusing the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine for her baby—and it worked! She’s a health professions student, and I think framing it that way really resonated with her. For what it’s worth, the resident working with me also said it was a great line and mentioned that she’s going to start using it regularly with patients as well.

Thanks again.

Happy holidays!

Emails like this make my day—and I hope it brings some optimism to yours too. Maybe it will help you convince someone you care about to continue to follow the science of vaccines, not the politics.

Thank you for helping me spread reliable health information here on Inside Medicine. I hope you have a wonderful holiday week.

—Jeremy

If you have information about any of the unfolding stories we are following, please email me or find me on Signal at InsideMedicine.88.