A Role for Psychiatry in Understanding and Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy

The author discusses psychiatry's role in addressing vaccine hesitancy and overcoming it in 2021. Topics covered include anti-vaccine people's immature defense mechanisms, the nocebo effect of expecting harmful effects from therapeutic intervention, and the public's need for a psychoeducational approach for enlightenment on the issue. Also noted are psychiatrists' possible sharing of knowledge and inputs in a multidisciplinary communication effort to reverse some people's vaccine hesitancy.