Communities with high levels of vaccine rejection present unique challenges to vaccine-preventable disease outbreak management. This paper sought perspectives of non-vaccinating parents to inform public health responses in such communities.

This report summarises the reflections from an online forum convened by COSSI and NCIRS, and supported by the Australian Department of Health, on 3 March 2022.

Researchers from the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation (COSSI) have developed this six point strategy, aimed at supporting the design and implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine program in Australia.

The variation and dynamic nature of the vaccination trajectories described in this study suggests that vaccine refusal is not a static trait but rather the result of ever-changing experience and continual risk assessment; not all non-vaccinating parents fit the ‘alternative lifestyle’ stereotype