Dr Adalja offers evidence-based strategies to address patient concerns about aluminum and thimerosal in vaccines.
Concerns about vaccine ingredients like aluminum and preservatives continue to circulate, often fueled by misinformation. In the video above, Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, offers practical advice for primary care physicians on countering safety myths with confidence. He underscores the scientific evidence supporting vaccine safety and suggests clear, actionable responses physicians can use—even in brief appointments.
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 edited for clarity, flow, and style.
Patient Care: How can PCPs effectively counter misinformation about vaccine safety, particularly concerns around aluminum or preservatives, during brief office visits?
Dr Adalja: Clinicians need to recognize that the science is on their side that all of these issues that keep getting brought up by the antivaccine movement, with respect to aluminum, with respect to thimerosal, with respect to mRNA, they've all been studied, researched, and they have all been debunked, and it's hard for a clinician to take the time to go through all of that, but I think they need to have the confidence that the science is on their side. There are dozens and dozens of studies that support the safety and efficacy of these types of vaccines. And what clinicians can do is tell individuals what they're reading is not true, and to point them to good sources of information and address the particular concern that a patient might have. So for example, if they bring up aluminum, they can reference certain studies that have been done in aluminum, or also remind people that they they eat more aluminum in their daily food than it's in that it's in a vaccine that contains aluminum.
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