Context

Although childhood vaccine uptake is generally high in industrialised countries such as the UK, pockets of lower uptake still allow disease outbreaks. Much under -immunisation is due to difficulties with accessing services, while a small proportion of parents reject immunisation. Although definitions vary, ‘vaccine hesitancy’ is the neologism applicable to the attitude of those parents neither readily accepting nor totally refusing vaccines. Despite a lack of measurement over time, it has been suggested that vaccine hesitancy is increasing. This is a cause for concern, since vaccine-hesitant parents may delay protecting children or even reject specific vaccines. This group may also be more likely to reject vaccines if there is a ‘scare’.

Importantly, by not totally …