When people hear about vaccine denial, they most often think about parents who are refusing to vaccinate their children. But there’s another type of vaccine refusal, and it’s important that we not ignore that, too. Doctors sometimes promote the use of some vaccines with less enthusiasm than others. Sometimes, they don’t talk about them at all.
This occurs most often with the herpes simplex virus, or HPV, vaccine. Our suboptimal immunization rates with this vaccine, and the behaviors of the physicians who might be contributing to that, have consequences. That’s the topic of this week’s Healthcare Triage.
This is based largely off a post I wrote for the Upshot. Links to further reading can be found there.
