Make it make sense. 

Trust, once lost, is extraordinarily difficult to regain.
The Greatest Casualty of COVID Was Trust https://buff.ly/tlQxdWP
My column in Rasmussen Reports.

We stand committed to changing the trajectory of our children’s health, for the better.

And rest assured, we won’t stop until we do.

Continuing good information about how vaccines save children's lives! Flu vaccine prevented death and serious illness among US children. Great to have this vaccine available to keep America's kids healthy!

The days of skipping vaccines and relying on a strategy of free-riding and hiding in the herd to avoid measles are over. https://lnkd.in/gRcbwE9a

🛠️ Tool of the Week: Practical Resources for Immunization Economics

As countries take on greater responsibility for financing their immunization programmes, understanding where resources come from, and where they are spent, is becoming increasingly important.

This practical World Health Organization guide shows how to systematically track immunization expenditures using the SHA 2011 framework, making data more consistent, comparable, and useful for decision-making.

This guidance:
🧩 Defines what counts as immunization expenditure within the SHA 2011 Health Accounts framework
🔄 Shows how to allocate shared health system costs (e.g. salaries and facility costs) to immunization
📊 Separates routine immunization from campaigns while tracking spending by financing source, provider, and input
✅ Includes quality checks to improve the consistency and comparability of expenditure estimates
📈 Helps turn expenditure data into policy insights for planning, financing, and sustainability

👉 Explore the guidance here: https://lnkd.in/ekE9xgha

🔎 Looking for more tools like this? Browse our full Guidance, Tools & Data collection here: 👉 https://lnkd.in/ef25VNyM

The first thing we hear often shapes everything that follows.

- A first impression.
- An opening price.
- An early piece of feedback.

Even when better information comes later, our minds tend to keep coming back to that starting point.

Our latest blog explores the 𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 and why the first piece of information has such a lasting influence on our judgments and decisions.

That’s why the way we introduce information matters.

In learning design, early examples, initial explanations, and first feedback often become the lens through which everything else is understood. A strong foundation helps learners build accurate understanding. A poor one can be surprisingly difficult to undo.

Good learning isn’t just about what we teach.
It’s also about where we begin.

📌 Write to 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴@𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺 to craft learning that transforms behaviour.

#LearningDesign #LearningScience #WorkplaceLearning #InstructionalDesign

https://lnkd.in/g2pEBTzk

Check out this graph. When you consider how vaccination programs have been one of US public health's greatest successes, this is appalling. "Make America Health Again"? Anything but.

Measles suffering and its long term health risks are bad enough, but also consider the economic costs of an outbreak for this HIGHLY infectious disease for which an effective, safe vaccine exists and has been used for decades.

A systematic review of measles outbreaks in 18 states btwn 2000–2025 found that the avg. cost/case was ~$43k, (range: ~$7k to ~$243k). Cost varies because of factors like the state it occurs in and the # of cases & contacts.

There is economy of scale in response but still super-expensive. Even 1 measles case requires an outbreak response, which means an initial fixed cost (e.g., case investigation, contact tracing, quarantine, & vaccination) estimated at $244,480.40. Then, as an outbreak expands, incremental costs occur ($16,197.13/case). Now compute the math with the cases per state in the map in this article and you see get a good sense of how much taxpayer money is spent towards using precious, underfunded public health resources for a problem that was well under control in the 20th century and a good chunk of the 21st.
#publichealth #measles #policy #vaccines

Article link in reply (as well as source of this cost estimation).

Nearly half of Americans now believe the science on childhood vaccines is "up for debate," even though decades of real-world evidence prove the vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccine confidence is plummeting, and harm is mounting. Now, trial lawyers are cashing in on that confusion, increasingly filing baseless lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers with ironclad safety records. See my thoughts in Newsweek 👇🏽

https://lnkd.in/gzMyWsmh

Former pharma scientist here (5 antiviral drugs marketed). The "premium wellness" and MAGA/MAHA movements are pushing a delusional alternate reality of $45 teas and untested pills. They scream "medical freedom" while dismantling the literal guardrails of human survival—leaving behind literal corpses.

Read my full breakdown on why true biohacks are boring, universal, and science-based.

👉 Read it here as a thread or a post:

BlueSky Thread:
https://lnkd.in/gqq94Kcu

FB Post:
https://lnkd.in/gCJdrXuJ

LinkedIn a examiné le signalement que j’avais effectué concernant un post de Louis Fouché et m’a informée que celui-ci avait été supprimé, car il contrevenait aux Politiques de la communauté professionnelle.

C’est un rappel que les plateformes peuvent agir lorsqu’un contenu est jugé incompatible avec leurs règles. Le signalement est un outil prévu pour contribuer à un espace d’échange plus sûr et plus fiable.

It's a long road to get a vaccine from the lab to people's arms--getting it out of the lab is just one of many challenges to overcome. One has to consider policies related to evaluation, production, procurement, logistics, distribution (including equity), regulation, and of course the key goal: public uptake (requiring education, promotion, acceptance, and access).

This new KFF analysis of trends in public beliefs about several vaccine mistruths is informative about this ongoing challenge. Some findings are (somewhat) heartenin; some quite concerning.

While the 1 item regarding attitudes toward mRNA vaccines in general shows improved views, I am concerned regarding how the COVID deaths q responses reflect underlying, latent public attitudes and beliefs that will impact acceptance/uptake of mRNA vaccines for future pathogen threats (as well as just still-important ongoing COVID-19 booster shots). This will especially be an issue if people associate the COVID-19 vaccine with mRNA vax technology that can be leveraged rather quickly in producing and disseminating effective, safe vaccines.

This "malleable middle" is important for journalists and public health promotion campaigns to consider with respect to how misinformation is presented in stories (alongside or in absence of accurate information and ordering too) given the potential for "fair and balanced" to risk platforming and false equivocation as well as reader anchoring bias of the first claim they are presented with in the story (often the mistruth) coloring interpretation of corrective fact that might follow.

Link to story in reply. #vaccines #policy #publichealth #sociology #science

New from Nature: "Six ways to put the public at the heart of science and policy" offers evidence-based recommendations for constructively responding to the challenges of communicating science for policy in a populist world.

The recommendations, vetted and refined by external peer-reviewers, are the product of a working group that included over two dozen researchers and practitioners from across fields and around the globe, to include our Stony Brook University colleague Musa al-Gharbi, a professor at the Stony Brook University School of Communication and Journalism.

The authors call on governments and academic institutions to "rethink how scientists, policymakers, and the public work together," with the six steps put forth detailing mechanisms to proactively increase public engagement and foster trust. As the article notes, "People are more likely to support - and champion - science advice that they helped to generate." This insight aligns deeply with the Alda Center's mission.

Alda Center ED Laura Lindenfeld commended the paper for its emphasis “that we cannot treat effective science communication and engagement as an afterthought or bolt-on skill; it must be built as core infrastructure across the organizations and industries where science is created and used. At the Alda Center for Communicating Science, we likewise focus on helping people connect clearly and authentically around complex ideas at the heart of science and innovation so that communication becomes a strategic asset rather than a box to check.”

Free access to the article and the recommendations in full are available here: https://lnkd.in/e-QMGwEH

Illustration: David Parkins

#PublicEngagement #SciComm #ScienceCommunication #SciencePolicy #AldaMethod

#News Missing vaccine meeting records expose media’s selective curiosity: In brief

* One government source says senior ministers and officials met on 13 August 2021, shortly before Cabinet approved Pfizer vaccination for 12- to 15-year-olds.
* The Ministry of Health has not identified minutes or notes from that meeting, while DPMC says meeting records do not exist.
* Four days later, CV TAG minutes recorded that myocarditis-related wording had been removed from communications, with no explanation why.
* The question is not whether vaccines worked, but why this flawed record trail has drawn so little interest from the mainstream media.




Where is the media? 

New Zealand’s mainstream media have shown little interest in flawed records and the removal of safety wording around the teen Pfizer decision, despite treating far smaller political accountability stories as newsworthy.

They spent much of the pandemic demanding high standards of evidence from critics of the COVID response.

Where is that same zeal when the response itself is being questioned? 

This is not about whether vaccines worked or whether teenagers should have been vaccinated. It is not a claim that ministers acted in bad faith. It is a story about records, risk communication and public accountability.

The record trail

Centrist has already reported the core facts. The missing meeting records and the changed myocarditis wording are covered in detail here and here.

Documents assembled by Aly Cook and Sue Grey, through OIA requests, show senior ministers and officials met on 13 August 2021, shortly before Cabinet approved extending Pfizer vaccination to 12- to 15-year-olds.

The Ministry of Health has not identified minutes or notes from that meeting, while DPMC says meeting records do not exist, despite holding related briefing material prepared for then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern, which it has refused to release.  

Four days later, CV TAG minutes recorded that references to longer dosing intervals and myocarditis risk had been removed from communications. The minutes added: “This has been actioned.”

The documents do not show who made that decision or whether it was made at a 13 August meeting. They do not prove wrongdoing. But they do leave a serious gap in the public record.

Why has this drawn so little interest from the mainstream media?

The contrast with other political coverage is hard to miss

In June 2026, RNZ reported that Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson had apologised after being caught driving 11km/h over the speed limit.

If a speeding ticket for driving a small amount over the limit draws media coverage, then a missing record trail before a major child vaccination decision should surely clear the same undefined threshold many times over. For the record, we wonder about Davidson’s modest speeding and apology being newsworthy and other similarly empty stories, but that is not our point. 

The bar…

https://lnkd.in/etjc7uka

Reading these fact-check sections of the BBC and of Reuters is fascinating. I find it so interesting that we have the collective knowledge of all of humanity and in some minds, conspiracy theories persist. I know there is psychology behind it. But still: it is fascinating to me.

This is an important message for pregnant women. 👇
This ECDC animation explains how vaccines protect both you and your baby - before, during, and after pregnancy 👉 https://lnkd.in/dGcEzZm7

A parent refused to have their child vaccinated because they believed the vaccine would "𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅'𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅."
Sometimes ago, while volunteering on a community health outreach, I heard something that has stayed with me ever since.
At first, I was surprised but the more I listened, the more I realized something.

Many people aren't refusing vaccines because they don't care about their children. They're making decisions based on what they've been told, what they've seen, or what they've come to believe over the years.

At that moment, I realized that science isn't just about knowing the facts. It is also about communicating them in ways people can understand and trust.

So, let's simplify one thing.

Think of your immune system as your body's security team.

When a new germ enters your body for the first time, your immune system has to figure out who it is and how to fight it. That takes time and sometimes, the infection gets the upper hand.
So here it is,
Vaccines give your immune system a "practice session."

When administered, they safely introduce your immune system to a harmless version, or just a weakened form of a germ, so that if the real one ever shows up, your body already knows what to do.

It is preparation, not punishment.
Protection, not harm.
And that is why vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in preventing infectious diseases.

I think I am beginning to realize that some of the biggest public health challenges aren't always scientific, they are communication challenges.

Maybe this is another story worth exploring.

So tell me, what is one health myth you've heard that you later found out wasn't true? I would love to hear it.
 #Vaccines #Immunization #PublicHealth #HealthEducation #HealthAdvocacy

Irony, joke or really the worse demonstration of how incompetent one could be. No, I am not referring to McCullough Foundation, while it does apply, but to LinkedIn. Many of us have flagged the multiple misinformation posts from Physicians for Informed Consent, Children's Health Defense, #philipmcmillan and Vejon Health Ltd and #nicolashulscher as being not only misinformation, going against LinkedIn policies on vaccines and against science. Only to get a reply that this might be important for us !?!?!
Come on guys, this is even more important for science, public health and the health of millions of children who's parents are exposed to the misinformation and lies these individuals and organizations do post here. Is @linkedin supporting such claims ? They shoul

Late post but excited to share our publication in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (JPIDS):
Early Measles Vaccination in Infants Less than 12 Months: Global Practices, Immunity Outcomes, and Implications for Disease Prevention

This review explores the current global evidence on measles vaccination before 12 months of age, examining:
1. Global vaccination practices and policy variations
2. Immunogenicity and the influence of maternal antibodies
3. Immune responses in young infants
4. The role of early vaccination during outbreaks and for high-risk populations
5. Key knowledge gaps and future research priorities

As measles continues to re-emerge globally, protecting infants who are too young for routine vaccination remains a critical public health challenge. Our review summarizes the available evidence and discusses its implications for immunization policies and disease prevention strategies.

I'm grateful to my co-authors Dr. Amna AlSaihati and Dr. Liset Olarte for this wonderful collaboration.

-Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/gxMrexmA
#Measles #Vaccination #Immunization #Pediatrics #PediatricInfectiousDiseases #PublicHealth #Vaccines #GlobalHealth #JPIDS #InfectiousDiseases

I created a Medium account for anyone who wants to follow my writing there!
My first post explores a new strategy for countering misinformation called “bypassing,” a technique that focuses on promoting truthful alternatives rather than directly confronting false claims.
medium.com/p/fc677889f611

"La recrudescence des maladies éradiquées" (sic). Si une maladie est éradiquée, je ne vois pas comment elle peut être en recrudescence ; car si elle est en recrudescence, c'est qu'elle n'est pas éradiquée, mais atténuée tout au plus. Cela dit la REUTEBEUF va nous éduquer à l'esprit critique et à penser comme il faut dans le sens où elle veut qu'on aille.
https://lnkd.in/eUD8TEzK
_

Excited to share my latest paper related to policies for improving immunization coverage, "Support for immunization-related child tax credit programs: A survey of parents in the United States," now out in Preventive Medicine Reports.

This research describes parental attitudes toward three different proposed tax credit policies that would promote pediatric immunization coverage in the United States. The results of this large, national survey show that parents are willing to consider immunization-related child tax credit policies.

Still, what I am most excited about is that despite living in a time where everything feels increasingly politically polarized, there were no significant differences in support among Democrats and Republicans. This suggests that this may be a rare instance in which bipartisan support exists for the creation of new policy.

If interested, please consider reading (and sharing) the paper:
https://lnkd.in/gARD88iH 

🎉 Our new paper has just been published in Personality and Individual Differences!

Citizen Vigilante or Social Vigilante… I guess we are right in the middle of the Zeitgeist.

The idea for this research originated from an observation that had intrigued me for some years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people who endorsed conspiracy beliefs (e.g., about vaccines or climate change) did not simply express their opinions. They often attacked, disparaged, or publicly shamed those who disagreed with them, portraying themselves as the ones who had “seen the truth,” while everyone else was dismissed as “sheep” or “asleep.”

Motivated by this observation, we conducted (with Antonis Gardikiotis) a series of studies in Greece and the United States. We examined whether conspiracy thinking and conspiracy beliefs are associated with social vigilantism—the tendency to view one’s own beliefs as superior while feeling a duty to correct others’ “ignorant” beliefs for the supposed greater social good, even through hostile or punitive means. In turn, this tendency may foster punitive and confrontational online behaviors.

Our findings supported this hypothesis. Moreover, they suggest that this relationship is explained, to a considerable extent, by self-serving motives, including self-enhancement, self-validation, and the pursuit of social status. These findings challenge the view that conspiracy believers’ attempts to correct or confront others are driven primarily by altruistic concerns for the public good.

📄 The paper is open access and available here:
https://lnkd.in/dbDjQ-Rp

The research work was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (ΕΛΙΔΕΚ - Ελληνικό Ίδρυμα Έρευνας και Καινοτομίας ) under the 5th Call for HFRI PhD Fellowships.