About this episode:

For mothers questioning whether or not to vaccinate their children, the decision can be complicated by an overwhelming and, at times, conflicting information environment. In this episode: Health communication researcher Melissa Carrion explores how an onslaught of messaging is informing how mothers decide to vaccinate their kids and how public health experts can better communicate on these key decisions.

Guest:

Melissa Carrion, PhD, is an assistant professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she researches rhetoric and health communication.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

• How one mom is navigating vaccines’ uncertain future—ScienceNews

• New Research: Childhood Vaccination Rates Drop Across 1,600 U.S. Counties—The 74

• "I Don't Understand How These Two Things Go Together": Toward a Theory of Risk Ecologies—Health Communication

• “You need to do your research”: Vaccines, contestable science, and maternal epistemology—Public Understanding of Science

Transcript information:

Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel.

Contact us:

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

Follow us:

• @‌PublicHealthPod on Bluesky

• @‌JohnsHopkinsSPH on Instagram

• @‌JohnsHopkinsSPH on Facebook

• @‌PublicHealthOnCall on YouTube

• Here's our RSS feed

Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins University.