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With vaccine hesitancy on the rise and misinformation spreading like wildfire on social media, drug safety specialists may have a hard time knowing how to talk about side effects without affecting people’s trust in vaccinations. Anthony Cox from the University of Birmingham and Daniel Salmon from the Institute for Vaccine Safety share their best advice for balanced and responsible vaccine safety communication.

Tune in to find out:

• Why we can’t allow bad actors to damage the drive for openness in research and data
• Why we should be open about uncertainty and always frame risks in the context of benefits
• How to prevent public health advocacy from biasing the science of vaccine safety

Want to know more?

The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook is a practical guide for anyone who wishes to improve their vaccine communication and challenge misinformation.

The CIOMS Guide to Vaccine Safety Communication helps medicine regulators communicate the uncertainties, risks and safety of vaccines.

The World Health Organization provides resources on vaccine communication and a series of illustrated articles on vaccine development and distribution.

In his Is it Safe? newsletter, Anthony Cox discusses the science, practice, and practicalities of medicine safety – including the latest developments with COVID-19 vaccines.

For more on vaccines, check out these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• Convincing the vaccine hesitant
• Keeping vaccines safe
• Substandard and falsified COVID-19 vaccines in the Americas
• Vaccination errors risk harm and damage trust

Finally, we featured these interviews with Anthony Cox and Daniel Salmon as an article in Uppsala Reports, too.

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About UMC
Uppsala Monitoring Centre promotes safer use of medicines and vaccines for everyone everywhere. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.