Northeast Ohio doctors began a campaign this week using their personal stories to increase vaccination rates as flu season arrives.
Doctors started posted videos to the website of the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland and Northern Ohio explaining why they and their families got vaccinated. The videos, which will also be posted to social media under the hashtag #whywevaccinate, are intended to counter a decline in flu vaccinations nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sharing personal stories builds trust and leads to increased vaccination rates, infectious disease specialist Dr. Kristin Englund said.
“[It's] a way to talk like we would be sitting in an exam room to a person from the heart, why we really want people to get vaccinated,” said Englund, who's also a former president of the academy.
Research shows eight out of 10 people trust their doctors to provide reliable information about vaccines but are more skeptical of others.
Doctors are also using their personal stories to urge people to get vaccinated for measles and other illnesses, Englund said.
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that can cause health problems in children, including swelling of the brain and even death.
Reduced vaccinations are leading to avoidable measles outbreaks across the country, she said.
"This is absurd how many people are getting sick nowadays from something that we can absolutely prevent,” Englund said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 88% of kindergartners in Ohio received the measles vaccine in 2024, down from nearly 92% a decade earlier. Between 92% and 94% of the population needs to have immunity to prevent measles outbreaks.
