Skip to main content
PAS 2024 Meeting Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Pre-Conference Ticketed Event
Pre-Conference Ticketed Event
APA Award Winner
APA Award Winner
APS Award Winner
APS Award Winner
ASPN Award Winner
ASPN Award Winner
SPR Award Winner
SPR Award Winner
On Demand Presentation
On Demand Presentation
Poster Icons
SPR Award Winner
SPR Award Winner
Back
Evaluation ViewAttendees 48
Hot Topic Symposia

Advocacy

Immunizations/Delivery

Infectious Diseases

Public Health

Well Newborn
Session Type: Hot Topic Symposia

Vaccines in Peril: Understanding and Combatting Modern Vaccine Hesitancy at the Federal, State and Community Level

Saturday, May 4, 2024
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET
Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre: 201 F
CE: Live CME: 1.5

Selected By: PIDS
Disclosure(s):
Shetal Shah, MD FAAP: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Session

Description: Vaccines remain among the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century have contributed to an exponential reduction in child mortality in the last 70 years. Though declared a threat to global health by the World Health Organization in 2019, vaccine hesitancy has been a public health issue for at least 3 decades. Politicization of immunization has contributed to extremely low rates of child vaccination against COVID-19, which has accelerated vaccine hesitancy and refusal of traditional childhood immunizations in the US and worldwide. These threats hinder public vaccine administration at a time when newer maternal immunizations and novel monoclonal agents are being introduced to prevent RSV in infants. Understanding this landscape at the individual and social level, in addition to understanding advocacy opportunities to mitigate this issue, is essential to modern academic pediatrics.

This panel will review the state of national and international vaccine hesitancy, discuss the role of politics in public health messaging. It will touch upon the role of social media in advancing both anti-vaccine messaging and evidence-based policy. It will also focus on maternal vaccination hesitancy during pregnancy and include actionable steps academic pediatricians can take to promote vaccine acceptance. Finally, we will the state and federal advocacy landscape related to immunization, including the VACCINES Act, state-based school exemption rules and payment models. The panel is sponsored by the Pediatric Policy Council and Academic Pediatric Association.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the international and national epidemiology of vaccine hesitancy/refusal.
  • Understand the data underlying new immunizations, the rationale for vaccine hesitancy in pregnancy and means of addressing concerns.
  • Advocate for evidenced-based policy solutions to reduce the population-health impact of vaccine hesitancy/refusal.

Presentations:

  • 2:00 PM – 2:15 PM ET
    National and International Epidemiology of Vaccine Hesitancy

    Speaker: Sarah M. Sanchez, MD, FAAP (she/her/hers) – Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center

  • 2:15 PM – 2:35 PM ET
    Political Determinants of Health and Vaccine Administration

    Speaker: Michelle D. Fiscus, MD FAAP (she/her/hers) – Association of Immunization Managers

  • 2:35 PM – 2:55 PM ET
    Welcome and introduction And Prenatal Vaccine Hesitancy in the Age of Tdap, Influenza, COVID and RSV Vaccines

    Speaker: Shetal Shah, MD FAAP (he/him/his) – New York Medical College

  • 2:55 PM – 3:15 PM ET
    Advocacy and Policy Related to Supporting Vaccine Administration

    Speaker: James Baumberger, MPP – American Academy of Pediatrics