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... Public health advocates and science communicators have largely tried to counter these ideas by offering accurate, factual information. But as a medical humanities researcher studying how groups that embrace vaccine hesitancy craft their message, I've learned that part of why vaccine hesitancy is so hard to combat is how these groups use storytelling to spread their views. ...

It's easy to assume that people who mistrust vaccines are undereducated, and therefore, that providing better information about science and vaccines would increase confidence in vaccines. This is sometimes called the information deficit approach.

In response to this perceived information deficit, public health experts and science communicators have worked hard to create accessibly written, welcoming educational materials about vaccines in order to help improve scientific literacy.

But this approach has had only limited success. One indication: The number of people who express vaccine-hesitant views continues to grow.

This partly relates to a misunderstanding about vaccine hesitancy: It's not that people don't understand science or don't have access to high-quality medical information. Vaccine hesitancy is what policymakers call a "wicked problem""one that's particularly hard to solve because it's fueled by a range of issues, including misinformation, the desire for social belonging, and deeply held religious beliefs. ...