For US Healthcare Professionals
For US HCPs
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Primary care physicians are on the frontlines of the vaccination conversation for their patients
Vaccine hesitancy seems to be more prevalent than ever with the spread of misinformation, shifting guidelines, and personal beliefs and fears around vaccination. You see it every day in your practice: patients are hesitant to receive vaccinations that you know can protect them from vaccine-preventable diseases.
As a primary care physician, you are a trusted source of information for your patients. You know their complete health history, so you are in an ideal position to reassure and educate them as they navigate their feelings and understand the facts of vaccination.
Getting through to your vaccine-hesitant patients is more important—and more difficult—than ever
Today’s Challenges
Misinformation is one of the largest barriers to approaching vaccine-hesitant patients and helping them get the protection they need.1 Hear from your peers about how they’re handling these conversations.
Vaccination rates increase as the number of physician visits increases2
Vaccination rates were significantly higher for patients with ≥1 physician contacts in the last year than those without, based on a 2018 National Health Interview Survey.2
Your regular contact with patients means you’ve built close relationships and a trusting bond with them—often over the course of many years, and even across entire families. You’ve seen them through health changes and offered them guidance. In this moment of uncertainty, as they consider vaccination, you are the health leader they’re looking to for information they can rely on.
Your connection with patients starts with knowledge and empathy
Best Practices
Vaccination conversations can be a delicate balance between the emotional and the logical. Our panelists provide insight into how they strike this balance with their hesitant patients.
“I remember a patient I had, this was last year, and she said, ‘I don't know what's in that vaccine, so I don't want to take it.’ Well, this is a patient who has multiple comorbidities. She's a diabetic, has high blood pressure, and she has hypothyroidism. And I said, ‘I'm curious, do you know what's in your blood pressure medicine?’ And she was like, ‘Well, no, I don't know what's in it.’ But I said, ‘You trust it. You trust to take it.’ And so when I did that, it helped her kind of think about, ‘Why am I so focused only on the vaccine not knowing what's in it, but I'm okay with taking my blood pressure medicine?’”
— Dr Bayo, Family Medicine
Help make every vaccination conversation impactful with our patient conversation guide
References
Brumbaugh KQ, Gellert F, Mokdad AH. Understanding vaccine hesitancy: insights and improvement strategies drawn from a multi-study review. Vaccines (Basel). 2025;13(10):1003.
Lu PJ, Hung MC, Srivastav A, et al. Surveillance of vaccination coverage among adult populations -United States, 2018. MMWR Surveill Summ. 2021;70(3):1-26.
This work contains material generated by artificial intelligence.