Dr. Jennifer Reich

Vaccines are well tested, studied and monitored long after licensing more closely than any other pharmaceutical product in existence.

And I don't think people know enough about that.

There hasn't been enough transparency about those safety monitoring systems that are really looking for minute risk and upticks in populations.

So I think that's really important for people to know to really build more trust in the safety story of vaccines.

But also what I found in my research is it's not often an all or nothing decision, and it's usually not a one and done decision.

So parents often told me that they frequently revisit vaccine decisions because of travel, because of their children's interest in joining the military or being a missionary or going to college.

That vaccine decision-making comes up over and over again as a family member develops leukemia and they have to rethink their role in taking care of family members.

Vaccines decisions are not just, I didn't want it in the first 30 days or the first six months, I'll never want it.

And so staying engaged in those conversations can be really important to families.

I'd say also families are often open to some vaccines, but maybe not all vaccines.

And health care providers really have to decide how they feel about that.

And state legislatures are grappling with this right now, actually, about how vaccine exemption law should work.

Can you opt out of one vaccine but accept others?

I find part of this individualized framing of vaccines as a tool for personal optimization is that families really think about each vaccine and its risks and benefits.

And I say that it's fair to say that they dramatically overestimate the risks.

and underestimate the benefits of vaccines.

So this is not to say that these are accurate mathematical projections, but they're emotionally driven expectations.

And that's really important to think about as people make decisions.

But as people are making decisions, which diseases seem very serious?

Which ones seem plausible or probable that they're going to encounter in their community?