Understanding and strengthening vaccine confidence among hard-to-reach groups

Vaccines save lives and are considered as core to public health.

Yet, vaccines are not always accepted, particularly among hard-to-reach groups including socially disadvantaged groups, ethnic minorities, indigenous gruops or gender diverse groups. Vaccine hestiancy - the refusal of vaccines despite their availability - is a widely researched topic. There are a myraid of interventions that have been developed and tested to address parental vaccine hesitancy.

Yet, hard-to-reach groups have only in recent years received attention in the literature.

The aim of this conference is to create a platform for scientific exchange of ideas and interventions to build vaccine confidence among hard-to-reach groups (socio-economically disadvantaged groups, migrant groups, indigenous communities, sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender and perhaps other groups).

The conference will firstly present reserach describing factors influencing vaccine hesitancy in those groups; we will explore current evidence presented by leading researchers in the field to help better understand what makes these groups "hard-to-reach".

The second part of the conference will explore various interventions that researchers are implementing and testing to help reach that group.

The two-day conference will be held in Stockholm, we will invite key speakers from this field from Europe and Canada in addition to providing a platform where researchers can share their research via oral presentation format. We expect 50-80 participants for this conference.