Johns Hopkins launches online course to teach parents how to talk about the vaccine for kids

BALTIMORE, Md. — Some parents may become the new voice for vaccine information.

Johns Hopkins University is offering a new online course designed to teach adults how to have informed conversations with other parents who may be hesitant about vaccination for their children.

Instructors said they met with a parent advisory group while developing this course and most of them were teachers with kids under 12.

This new course comes as Pfizer is pushing for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine for children under five.

“A lot of the parents that I’ve spoken to, you know, if they had a question about a vaccine, I would say, well, here’s what I would suggest, but I would also talk to your healthcare provider. And they would say, like, I don’t trust my health care provider,” said Rupali Limaye, Associate Scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Limaye said those conversations were the motivation to create the online class just for parents.

During the 90-minute training, she said parents learn about hesitancy, how vaccines and your immune system works and communication techniques.

“We brought it to a level that parents would be able to understand because I think a lot of the resources that are out there are really for individuals that have a background in public health,” said Limaye.

She said the goal is help parents debunk misinformation, and shared evidence based information.

“The reason we wanted to have parent ambassadors is we know that there’s been a decline in trust towards help the health care system,” said Limaye. “We do know that people that are hesitant, are much more likely to actually turn to their peers rather than turn to someone within the healthcare system.”

As of late-January, instructors say about people were enrolled in the course along with some schools districts that plan to use it for their staff.

Additionally, a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows about a third of parents with kids 5 to 11 have gotten them vaccinate. This is double when compared to parent response from last November.

You can find more information about the course here.

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