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Amesh Adalja, MD, on How PCPs Can Counter Social Media Vaccine Misinformation
Amesh Adalja, MD, explains how physicians can rebut social media vaccine claims with concise, referenced facts and patient-centered communication.
A patient holds up a phone and asks, “But what about this?” It’s a familiar moment. In the video above, infectious disease physician and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security senior scholar Amesh Adalja, MD, offers a calm, practical way to keep the visit on track: stick to the specific claim your patient brings in, lay out what the evidence shows in plain language, and skip the back-and-forth about pundits. He also points to reliable sources you can share in the room and after the visit. For primary care, the payoff is twofold—protect the relationship and make progress on vaccination decisions. Watch for simple pivots you can borrow (“Here’s what we know from large studies…”) and quick handoffs to credible references.
Amesh Adalja, MD, is an adjunct assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and founder of Tracking Zebra, an infectious disease-related project management, consulting, media, and strategy firm.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
Patient Care: How should PCPs respond when patients cite social media "evidence" or high profile anti vaccine figures as sources of authority?
Dr Adalja: I would advise them to actually address the issue. So if a patient is looking at a social media post that says somebody suddenly dropped dead after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, actually show them the data that that's not true. Or if somebody says something about mercury and thimerosal and autism, talk to them about ethyl mercury versus methylmercury and how that's different and how so many studies have been done to disprove them. Actually addressing the issue right on the actual fact or that's in dispute. Just show them what reality actually has shown and and probably stay away from some of the you know, trying to get into a back and forth with what RFK Jr said when you're talking to an individual patient, just say, well, What? What? That's not true, and these are the reasons why it's not true, and these are the resources that allow me to know that that's not true.
Explore more from our conversation with Dr Adalja:
