One of the biggest challenges in public health right now isn’t about medicine. It’s about messaging.
As the recent measles outbreak in Clark County has shown, a disease being preventable doesn’t mean people will do what they can to prevent it. A disease once thought eradicated can come roaring back if not enough people are vaccinated against it.
Public-health officials and doctors face myriad obstacles when trying to persuade patients to get vaccinated. The trouble can range from falsehoods spread on social media, to lax laws, to tailoring messages for a wide range of audiences.
