We are pleased to introduce the second annual report of the Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group: Meeting the Challenge of Vaccination Hesitancy. The package of “big ideas” presented here, and the rigorous evidence and consensus-driven insights on which they rest, reassure us that smart strategies are available not only to maintain, restore, and strengthen confidence in the value of vaccines, but also to underscore the broad societal obligation to promote their use.

Implementing those strategies requires concerted commitment, and we are deeply grateful to the members of the Vaccine Science & Policy Group, who have helped us identify pathways to progress. Co-chairing the Vaccine Science & Policy Group are Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Shirley M. Tilghman, president emerita and professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University. They are joined by 22 remarkable individuals drawn from the ranks of government, industry, and advocacy—both within the U.S. and globally—whose
cross-disciplinary knowledge includes public health and regulatory science, philanthropy and venture capital, biotechnology, ecology, ethics, and journalism. Our appreciation for their dedication, talent, and wisdom runs deep. Thanks, too, are owed to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—without its support, this year’s convening and publication would not have been possible—and to FluLab, the launch funder of the Vaccine Science & Policy Group.

Equally important is the rich partnership that has been forged between the Sabin Vaccine Institute, with its decades of vaccine science and global immunization expertise, and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine and Society Program, with its extraordinary convening power. Both organizations have a long track record of engaging in non-partisan, cross-disciplinary dialogue that helps to meet the greatest challenges facing society. We are proud of the synergy we have built together and thankful for the opportunity all of us have had to learn from one another.

The strength and credibility of our collaboration has already been reflected in the positive response to our inaugural report, Accelerating the Development of a Universal Influenza Vaccine, issued in July 2019. We are confident that this current report will also generate welcome attention from policymakers, immunization leaders, researchers, and journalists—and contribute to lifesaving advances in the use of vaccines.

Meeting the Challenge of Vaccine Hesitancy is based on work funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This report is reproduced  with permission from the Sabin Institute.

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