We're standing at a crossroads in public health.
On one hand, we're witnessing an extraordinary era of vaccine innovation, new platforms, new protection and new possibilities for disease prevention. On the other hand, we're grappling with an unprecedented erosion of public trust and outbreaks to preventable diseases, such as measles. Vaccine misinformation is no longer a fringe issue. It's a mainstream force reshaping clinical workflows, public health strategies and national policy.
In 2025, the science for vaccines has never been stronger, but science is no longer enough.
Meet our expert panelists
Georges Benjamin, M.D., FACP
Executive Director, American Public Health Association
Jen Brull, M.D., FAAFP
President, American Academy of Family Physicians
William Schaffner, M.D.
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Tina Q. Tan, M.D., FAAP, FIDSA, FPIDS
Professor of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; President, Infectious Diseases Society of America
Charles Vega, M.D., FAAFP
Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Associate Dean for Culture and Community Education, University of California, Irvine
Our moderator:
Heather Stoltzfus, M.P.H., R.N., CIC
Research Nurse Program Manager, Johns Hopkins University Division of Infectious Diseases; Consultant, Broad Street Prevention; Editorial Adviser, Infection Control Today
Medical Economics and Infection Control Today brought together a powerhouse panel of experts, frontline physicians, national policy leaders and infectious disease specialists to help us make sense of this evolving landscape. We'll examine the implications of recent policy shifts, unpack the real-world impact of vaccine hesitancy, and, most importantly, discuss how we can lead with evidence, empathy and action.
This isn't just about staying informed; it's about staying engaged. And as physicians, infection preventionists, leaders and advocates, we each have a role to play in rebuilding public confidence and reinforcing the foundational promise of public health.
The following panel discussion was recorded on April 29, 2025. The full discussion is available here. This segment highlights discussion between Williams Schaffner, M.D., and Charles Vega, M.D., about how the vaccination challenges in the U.S. are linked to a lack of vaccine education in school.
The education problem
Stoltzfus: Dr. Schaffner, can you tell me what policy levers — federal, state, or local — we could pull that could have the biggest impact on our vaccine acceptance as a society?
Schaffner: Well, do you want the good news or the bad news? I don't think I would have said that a year and a half ago, but we're concerned now about national policies that, in a variety of ways, discourage vaccination.
I'm going to open this up a bit for consideration. We in medicine and public health have taken this problem on. This is a medical and public health problem. Yes, I'm going to expand that a bit because I also think it's an educational problem. If you take a quick look at the health curricula in middle school and high school, you’ll find that vaccines are taught modestly [and] erratically, and certainly preventable diseases themselves are hardly ever mentioned. I think if we went to high school seniors and asked them two simple questions: “What's a vaccine? And how does a vaccine work?” and hoped for simple declarative and correct responses, I don't think we would get them very often. We need to expand our reach and reach out to our colleagues in education and get the curriculum [about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases] in middle school and high school enhanced.
Remember, a high school senior in a few years is the parent asking the questions.
Benjamin: Absolutely. I think that one of the challenges we have is the issue of health literacy in our population. We have a population of people who don't know first aid, they really don't understand the human body, human biology. The sciences have been deemphasized. Reemphasizing science is certainly our first step.
The other thing we need to do is a better job of making our policymakers more scientifically literate. There’s a gap there as well, and I think there's an enormous opportunity for our professional societies. If the federal government won't do it, I think the professional societies can fill that gap. We heard earlier from Dr. Brull about how trusted physicians are, and we're still very trusted. And I think there's an opportunity there for us to serve as the chief health advisers to our local elected officials, and then at the state and national level. There's a big opportunity there to rebuild that relationship so that they'll come to us when they're doing policymaking.
Vega: This is a fascinating line of conversation that I believe in. One thing that's been laid bare as Dr. Tan and others mentioned, is anti-science. Over the past five years, we’ve seen just what a huge gap there is in the understanding of science and the scientific method.
It was incredible that the COVID-19 vaccines in that first iteration were so effective. But then with the mutations of the virus, naturally the vaccines were less effective — while still effective for preventing severe disease — but other vaccines were tried and didn't have very strong efficacy. So, I got a sense from the public [that they thought,] “See, nobody knows what they're doing.” Therefore, we can throw out the whole lot of it. It takes a bit of distrust and a bit of confusion to result in: “I'm just going to dismiss vaccines out of hand.”
Everything we're talking about is really going to take time. Dig in for the long haul. We really need a better grasp of science as a society.
