Promising
According to scientists involved, the results are ‘promising’. Dr Anthony Fauci of the NIH told the BBC: "On safety and on the ability to produce an appropriate immune response we can call this trial an unqualified success, even though it was an early Phase One trial."

Millions of lives
Vaccination is considered to be one of the greatest public health interventions. It saves millions of lives every year. Diseases such as measles, smallpox and polio that were common in many countries only decades ago, have become increasingly rare because of vaccines.

Need for information
Although vaccination may be one of the most cost-effective health investments, it also faces increased public questioning. In Europe, one of the greatest barriers to the wider uptake of immunisation is distrust of the vaccines. Many people fear the safety of these programmes, as a quick search on the internet and YouTube points out. It’s clear that there’s a great need for information on their benefits and risks.

Safety testing
Vaccines undergo rigorous safety testing before they are approved for public use. Serious side-effects are therefore very rare. 'Nevertheless, as vaccines are given to healthy people, public acceptance of the risk of any adverse reaction is much lower than for medicines designed to treat sick people. The trade-off between benefit and risk is different', says the EU-funded project ADVANCE on its website.

Harmful vaccines
Prof. Miriam Sturkenboom is Scientific Coordinator of ADVANCE: “I want to make sure that harmful vaccines are withdrawn from the market as quickly as possible”, says Sturkenboom on the recently published project page on www.HorizonHealth.eu.

Maintain trust
The ADVANCE project aims to maintain public trust in immunisation programmes. Prof. Sturkenboom: “We will create a European framework for rapidly assessing and communicating the benefits and risks of vaccines. This will give health professionals, regulators and the public the facts they need to make decisions on vaccines”.

Interesting links:
•    Watch the video on three Harvard experts on trust in vaccines.
•    Also read about the factors that influences vaccine acceptance.
•    What are the myths and facts about vaccination?
•    Read more on the need to understand the psychological, social and political factors that affect public trust in vaccines.