RSV Prevention and Vaccine Hesitancy: Building Long-Term Communication

This episode focuses on the longer-term, relationship-based approach to overcoming vaccine hesitancy as it applies to RSV prevention. Dr. Creech draws on moral foundation theory to explain that vaccine-hesitant parents are often not irrational — they are acting on deeply held values around purity (what goes into the body), freedom (the right to choose), and a distrust of institutions shaped partly by COVID-era experiences. Effective communication, he argues, must meet parents on their own moral terrain rather than simply repeating scientific consensus.

Practically, this means acknowledging parental concerns about COVID overreach, explaining the technology behind monoclonal antibodies and maternal vaccines in parent-friendly terms, and presenting RSV prevention as offering freedom of choice — parents can opt for maternal vaccination, monoclonal antibody prophylaxis, or both. Dr. Creech frames this not as a one-visit conversation but as a marathon: multiple touchpoints across prenatal and postnatal care, with each interaction building trust and value. He identifies creating a clear "value proposition" — RSV is the leading cause of infant hospitalization, and here are safe, effective tools to prevent it — as the cornerstone of this effort.

Dr. Creech also urges providers and public health communicators to become more credible and accessible voices than social media influencers, while acknowledging that healthcare systems are not yet winning that competition. The panel is united in the conviction that the tools available now — if delivered well — represent a genuine turning point in RSV prevention, and that communication failures should not be allowed to undermine this medical advance.

In the last episode, "RSV Prevention: Final Reflections and a Vision for the Future," the entire panel shares closing thoughts on how to move from the current moment of opportunity to a future where severe RSV disease in infants is truly uncommon.