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Analyzing a Facebook-fueled anti-vaccination attack: 'It's not all about autism'

5 years ago
Anonymous $Dftgs0JzgE

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190321092243.htm

The research, published today in the journal Vaccine, suggests a framework that pediatricians can use to open a conversation with parents who are hesitant to immunize their children, while also "inoculating" those parents with skills to resist anti-vaccination messages on social media.

"If we dismiss anybody who has an opposing view, we're giving up an opportunity to understand them and come to a common ground," said senior author Brian Primack, M.D., Ph.D., director of Pitt's Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health, and dean of the Pitt Honors College. "That's what our research is about. We want to understand vaccine-hesitant parents in order to give clinicians the opportunity to optimally and respectfully communicate with them about the importance of immunization."