Thank you to all those who participated in last week's Live Q&A session on building trust in vaccines. It was a very engaging discussion and there were a number of interesting topics covered during the 90-minute session. 

Following on the success of this initial Q&A, we plan to host additional sessions in the coming months. We hope even more campaign site members will choose to join in and share their thoughts during our next Live Q&A.

In the meantime, the full transcript of the session is available here: Live Q&A Transcript

Questions that the group discussed included: 

1) Can you give an example (from outside vaccination) of health communication strategies that have worked well [e.g. road safety, smoking cessation, mobile phone safety, radon risk]? To what extent can this be translated into immunisation campaigns?

2) I saw a talk last year by an advertising expert who discussed road safety ads which use emotion - including fear - to persuade the public to change behaviour. Is this something health authorities should consider? Anti-vaccination groups have used strong emotional messaging to make a disproportionately strong impact on the public. To what extent should immunisation advocates 'fight fire with fire'?

3) We're looking into both social networks and positive deviants to understand resistance and demand in high-risk populations. Does anyone have vax-specific experience in these fields that they can share or literature they can recommend?

4) Is there a global plan of WHO/UNICEF to change focus from advocacy and communication...towards strengthening the systems, building capacities, skills and trust of professionals?

5) There has been a lot of mention of people who actively oppose vaccination (though I am yet to believe that this constitutes a 'lobby), and those who have questions. What about the vast majority who do not question. For whom vaccination is a norm. How stable is this group, and would fear appeals potentially backfire by raising questions that didn’t exist previously in people’s heads?

6) In Moldova, according to the law, to access educational institutions all children must be immunised. Some of the parents of not immunised children contest these legal provisions (groups on social media; petitions to Ombudsman) and request for free access to kindergarten and school. There is obviously a difference between access to education, guaranteed by Constitution, and getting education in school… My question is if there are any experiences in the region of countries that have effectively managed this dilemma?

7) In Germany the national vaccination plan has been published recently. The good news: the federal government and the governments of the Laender admit to the advantages of vaccination. But no precise vaccination objectives have been defined so far. This should be done by a committee which remains to be constituted. What are the experiences in other European countries – do national vaccination plans exist containing detailed objectives? And who is responsible for implementation and achievement of the plan in a given country?

8) Celebrities have been blamed for pedalling inaccurate information to the public about vaccines. Should pro-vaccine celebrities be mobilised to undo the damage?

9) What worked well during European Immunization Week 2012? What types of activities were most successful? Was it beneficial to situate EIW in the context of a global immunization initiative?