Physician-only Social Network Surveys How Physicians Really Feel About Anti-vaccine Movement

By Tammy Adams via Multibriefs

The World Health Organization has listed the anti-vaccine movement as a top global health threat in 2019 and the National Institutes of Health calls it a "regression of modern medicine."

Those are strong words from reputable national and international health organizations. And now…

Several social media platforms are facing public scrutiny over their role in promoting misleading health information, especially relating to the anti-vaccination movement, which many experts say has contributed to the outbreak of contagious illnesses, like measles, in areas around the country.

In response, YouTube is removing ads from channels that run anti-vaccine content, Pinterest is blocking vaccine-related posts and Facebook is expected to take similar measures in the near future.

At a time where it seems everyone (who wants one) has a platform, there is a global need for medically and scientifically accurate information from reliable sources to help inform public health knowledge. SERMO is a leading social network for over 800,000 fully verified and licensed physicians around the world. It focuses on fostering discussions through insights, data and trends.

With physicians representing 150 countries, this online social network enables doctors to anonymously communicate about real-world medicine and health-related concerns without the influence of misinformed parties on topics critical to public health.

When it comes to the anti-vaccination movement, SERMO surveyed its community to find out how physicians really feel.

Among other findings, survey data from 194 member physicians revealed that:

• 94 percent say parents/guardians should be required to vaccinate their healthy children against preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and polio.
• 90 percent say children should be barred from public school, private school and daycare activities if they are not vaccinated.

So, according to the physicians, what’s the best strategy for increasing vaccination rates?

• 48 percent: Enforcing stricter requirements for children and adults
• 31 percent: Education about vaccine safety and efficacy
• 15 percent: Instituting an immunization registry to hold people accountable
• 6 percent: Providing free vaccinations for school-aged children

This closed social media community for doctors is doing its part to help combat misinformation and emotionally fueled assertions about important healthcare topics. SERMO is also the leading site for medical crowdsourcing. Doctors can ask real-life medical questions and get real-life answers from hundreds of their peers, all in an anonymous setting.

Always a lover of words well written, Tammy Adams is an experienced and award-winning copywriter/editor making a difference in the healthcare marketing, public relations and communications industries for more than 20 years. She has a BA in English from Texas Christian University (Go Frogs!). Equal parts creative and technical, she is a seasoned and diverse medical writer who knows how to execute like a journalist, think like a marketer and write like a storyteller.