Inside STAT: Counselors engage new parents before vaccine hesitancy hardens

A VACCINATION COUNSELOR SPEAKS WITH NEW PARENTS ABOUT IMMUNIZING THEIR BABY.(LAURENCE BUTET-ROCH FOR STAT)

The mother was not dead-set against vaccination. But she was vociferous enough to worry the nurses. So, when preparing to discharge her preemie son after five months of hospitalization, they called in Dr. Arnaud Gagneur. His research had given rise to a whole new workforce in Québec, whose job was to soothe parents’ anxieties about vaccines. Now, as Gagneur hoped to import this strategy around the globe, he was faced with a question: Could he convince one mother in his own hospital to immunize her kids? STAT reporter Eric Boodman traveled back to his home province — translating interviews from Québécois French — to report this in-depth, engrossing feature. “I wanted readers to glimpse the fight against a global health crisis, waged gently in the maternity ward,” Eric said of the trip. Read more here.