The key to persuading people to get vaccinated | Letters

Paul McGilchrist on why governments should address misinformation clearly and repeatedly, and Des Senior and Patrick Cosgrove on public health and personal freedom

Emma Brockes makes a good case against using shame and ridicule against the vaccine-hesitant (Should we shame the anti-vaxxers? That can only backfire, 31 July). However, she leaves to the very last sentence the most important consideration: Why does he think that?" Surely the key to persuading the hesitant is to separate the various categories of concern/attitude and address these issues directly and explicitly - something which neither governments nor the media have attempted to do.

Allowing target groups to remain an amorphous body of the unvaccinated" helps to sow resentment among those with understandable concerns, through their being lumped together with baseless conspiracists. Inveterate libertarians, meanwhile, gain spurious legitimacy by their association with those claiming genuine (if inaccurate) medical fears. Rarely are any of these groups required to cite reliable facts in defence of their positions, if only because their views are mostly sought by the media through vox-pop reporting.