Vaccine Hesitancy in Adolescents: Library Outreach Partnerships to Raise Vaccine Literacy

Abstract

Adolescents and their parents have been and continue to be bombarded with an infodemic of credible and nonreliable sources of information about vaccines. Decisions need to be made about getting the new COVID vaccine, a flu shot, HPV vaccine and the shingles vaccine just to name a few. This article attempts to eradicate the infodemic about vaccines and youth’s feelings to get them or be hesitant about them. It will discuss youth hesitancy concerns, parental influence on vaccine decisions and suggest partnerships health sciences librarians can foster to provide quality, pertinent and reliable information for youth and their parents.

Keywords:

• Health literacy
• vaccine hesitancy adolescents
• vaccine literacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Grace McGinness

Grace McGinness ([email protected]) is an MLIS candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information.

Helen-Ann Brown Epstein

Helen-Ann Brown Epstein, MLS, MS, AHIP-D, FMLA ([email protected]) is the Informationist for Virtua Health, an award winning hospital community health system in southern New Jersey.