- All right folks, everything you wanted and needed to know about vaccines, which is an ongoing public awareness initiative we're involved in, and you can find out from talking to people like Dr. Stephanie Navarro Silvera, who is an epidemiologist and Professor of Public Health at the Montclair State University.

Doctor, good to see you.

- Good to see you.

Thank you for having me.

- Now, the Department of Health in New Jersey, their website is up right now.

They have a great section on vaccines.

We're doing this initiative in cooperation with them.

Question.

What is the most important piece of information about vaccines today that needs to counteract some confusion out there in the public about vaccines?

I'm sure there are many things, but what's the most pressing right now?

- I think that the key thing that we all need to know is that vaccines save lives, right?

There are a lot of issues.

There are a lot of reasons why people might be hesitant to get a vaccine, but at the end of the day, they are one of the best public health tools we have to keep people living long, healthy, productive lives.

- Okay, so confusion.

Fair to say, confusion and resistance, doctor?

- Absolutely.

And I think that when we think about confusion and resistance, we need to really understand the sources of the confusion and the resistance.

Because it's different for different groups of people.

- Okay, let's break it down.

How the heck, Dr. Silvera, have we gotten to the point where if you look at public opinion research, which you do as well, as I do and so many others in media.

How the heck is it that public resistance, or resistance and hesitancy around vaccines is somehow correlated to people's political ideologies and the media they consume?

- So I've done research on this with some colleagues here at Montclair State University.

And we found very strongly the people who identify as very religious, or identify with a religion, were less likely to trust vaccines, to trust government sources.

We also looked at, we asked, "Where do you get trustworthy information?"

And one of the things we were struck by is that where people got their information really drove how they felt about vaccines, as well as the number of people who simply said, "There are no trustworthy sources."

And I think knowing that, is where we as public health professionals need to work, because we need to rebuild trust.

- Okay, so, and again, why the heck you think we're doing this "Vaccines: What You Need to Know," because of everything Dr. Silvera just said.

I'm reading from the New York Times, which some people might say, "Oh, it's the New York Times."

Well, these are facts, okay?

This has to do with Robert F. Kennedy, who is a, obviously a leader in the Trump administration as relates to policy.

According to Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, you know her, she's an expert.

And when it comes to public communication up at the Annenberg School, she said that, "RFK Jr. is de-certifying other voices of authority on vaccines."

Because she argues, and others argue, that RFK Jr. is continuing to say, "We need to test and study vaccines so that people can make an informed choice."

Now, on the surface, who would argue with that?

But there's more to it than that doctor, isn't there?

- Absolutely.

I think first of all, who are the people doing the research?

There have been decades-long research on multiple vaccines.

Vaccines have been shown to be very safe and very effective.

And I think that when you start to allow voices who come in with an agenda to disprove the efficacy, I think that's concerning.

As a researcher, we are by nature, skeptical people.

We wanna go in and try to disprove a hypothesis.

We wanna know what the reality is underlying that.

And if you're coming in, however, with the agenda, I would say, to find fault, to highlight, and to over blow what some of the risk factors are, there are risks with vaccines.

There's risks with everything, right?

But we have to look at the risk/benefit balance.

And I'm afraid that's not what's happening anymore.

- So parents right now watching, new parents, God willing, new baby.

That MMR vaccines, measles, mumps, rubella, eh, I've heard things.

Now let's talk about measles.

Let's talk about outbreaks in the country.

We're taping on the 22nd of April, this will be seen later.

We hope and pray that the numbers don't go up, and these are people we're talking about, and some children are dying.

Along those lines, Dr. Silvera, what do parents need to know about the MMR vaccine?

- So I think the key thing is that the MMR vaccine is a very safe and effective vaccine.

It is one of the most effective vaccines we have on the market.

Two doses gives you about 97% protection.

That is far higher than many, many other vaccines that we have.

And here's the other part of measles that we need to know.

It is highly infectious, and the symptoms can be very severe.

We're talking about not just death, but lifelong complications due to encephalitis, blindness, other issues.

On the flip side, the argument against getting the MMR has been to me very fraught with this, the pathologizing of autism, right?

So the fear that people are trying to stroke about the MMR is that your child will have autism.

First of all, there is no evidence that the vaccine causes autism.

That has been debunked many times over.

But also, autism is a neurodivergence, it is not a pathology.

And people with autism live very capable, successful lives, contrary to what RFK Jr. has been saying in the recent news.

- Look at the website for the Department of Health, and the state will come up.

They have a section on vaccines.

Check it out.

Question.

For people who are resistant, for people who are concerned, they have every right to pursue information, vetted credible information.

But here's the thing I keep struggling with.

Is it purely, as RFK Jr. and others, this is not about RFK, it's about a much bigger issue.

It's a personal choice, Dr. Silvera.

I will make that choice myself.

And then I ask, "Wait a minute.

But if my mother who's watching every week, who's, as we do this, turning 90, yes, I disclosed your age, mom.

If someone is around my mom or someone who's older, and immunocompromised, is it purely a personal decision, Dr. Silvera, as to whether I take a vaccine or not?

Or someone takes a vaccine or not?"

Are they not impacting others?

- Yes, and they're impacting others in many, many ways, right?

So there are some people who, for other medical conditions, medical reasons, cannot get vaccinated.

So you're putting those people at risk.

There's also the risk that you are, if we have these big outbreaks of measles, which require a lot of care, there is no treatment.

We can reduce your symptoms, but we cannot cure it.

You're putting a lot of drain on our healthcare systems, right?

Vaccination, I think if, let's take it out of measles in particular, but vaccination plays a pivotal role in our economy, right?

So if we care about the economy, vaccines play a role in that.

It decreases healthcare costs, it increases workforce productivity.

It reduces the burden of disease on society.

So the more we can keep people safe and healthy before they get sick, the better it is for everyone in immediate ways, such as your mom, that's turning 90.

I'll disclose, my mom is in her 80s, and very active.

But it's protecting those individuals, but it's also just good for society.

We live in a place where we're very individualistic, but we do live within communities, and we need to care about community.

- That is Dr. Stephanie Navarro Silvera, who is an epidemiologist and Professor of Public Health at Montclair State University.

We'll continue our conversation as part of our series, "Vaccines: What You Need to Know."

See you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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