Vaccine hesitancy

Jessica Malaty RiveraInfectious disease epidemiologist, science communicator, and executive director of the Infodemiology Initiative

• Malaty Rivera contends that clean water and vaccines have been the greatest advances in longevity.

  “the greatest advancement in longevity science has been clean water and vaccines. It's why we're living as long as we are”

  TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 30:28

• Malaty Rivera argues that hostility arises because vaccine beliefs are bound up with identity, so pushback feels like a personal attack on a worldview.

  “It's so much of it has to do with a person's identity”

  TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 20:23

• Malaty Rivera acknowledges vaccines carry real risk of adverse events but argues the totality of evidence shows benefits outweigh risks.

  “There is risk in vaccines. And anybody who denies that is not being honest. However, we also know from the totality of evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks”

  TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 12:23

• Malaty Rivera argues the U.S. is in an extremely dangerous period of redefining established science and exploiting post-pandemic trauma to turn people against evidence.

  “we are in an extremely dangerous time in our country's history when it comes to a redefining of established science”

  TED Radio Hour: An epidemiologist's guide to good health advice (Nov 13, 2026) · Listen from 9:36