Ten Actions to Counteract Vaccine Hesitancy Suggested by the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine, and Public Health

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is one of the main causes of the widespread decline in vaccination coverage and has become the subject of ongoing debate among public health professionals. The present commentary is a "decalogue" of strategic actions to counteract vaccine hesitancy for public health professionals that comes from the cognitive and formative path put in place by the "Communication in Public Health" working group (WG) of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine, and Public Health. From the establishment of a national, multidisciplinary WG on VH to the activation of a national monitoring/surveillance system on vaccine hesitancy, several proposals are discussed. The identification and dissemination of good practices and tools to counteract and understand vaccine hesitancy, interdisciplinary training on vaccine hesitancy and on risk communication, community engagement and infodemiology, the inclusion of effective interventions to counteract vaccine hesitancy within the National Immunization Plan (NIP), the promotion and growth of a community of practice and research in the field of vaccine hesitancy, collaborations between scientific societies, and knowledge from the behavioral sciences represent other actions recommended in the present commentary. The present document suggests ten undeferrable strategies that could be implemented at the national and local levels in Italy, and that could be borrowed by other European countries in order to counteract vaccines hesitancy with a systematic and organic approach.

Keywords: collaborating research; community of practices; counteracting hesitancy; health planning tools; monitoring systems; scientific societies; standardized practices; vaccine hesitancy.