What's the best way to incentivize immunizations?

Vaccination saves lives.

Yet, resistance to immunization has become entrenched in some sociodemographic strata. Wealthy, educated liberals who care about organic food and "natural" products among them. 

Under-immunization of school-aged children in turn has led to outbreaks of measles and other transmissible infections, and contributes to  thousands of preventable influenza deaths in children each year. 

It's not enough to tout the benefits of vaccines, and then stand back with syringe in hand. Potential vaccines want to know vaccines are safe, and hear misconceptions about the low risks of vaccines. A seminal article by my Dartmouth colleague Brendan Nyhan showed that trying to disabuse vaccine skeptics of their misconception too may fail. 

Many states and countries are piloting various incentive programs designed to enhance immunization rates without engaging in potentially polarizing debate. From making immunizations mandatory to attend school to linking welfare benefits to vaccine receipt and even straight up cash incentives, lots of experiments are happening. Some of them even work.

Check out this great article by Susan Scutti of CNN and its accompanying video. I was proud to be quoted in it.

Let Opioid Users Inject in Hospitals

It is a new world in health care as America grapples with an epidemic of opioid drug abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that opioid overdoses killed over 28,000 people nationwide in 2014, more than ever before.

From heart-valve infections to drug overdoses, the casualties of this epidemic wash up in our hospitals. It has changed my hospital service significantly. Almost every day, we try to save a young person dying from infectious complications of injection drug use.

Addicted patients usually bond with their providers over the shared goal of healing. Yet these interactions, which often bridge divides of class, culture and personal psychology, can break down. When addicted patients inject drugs in the hospital, doctors and nurses can find themselves cast in the role of disciplinarians, even jailers.

Confining patients to their rooms, restricting their activities and posting guards is expensive. It may also compromise a patient’s well-being: Ambivalent providers may visit less often, educate patients less avidly and spend less time devising the best treatments.

The worst effect of confining addicted patients in the hospital may be the damage to the patient-provider bond. 

To read more, including my proposal to let opioid users inject in the hospital, check out my new op-ed at The New York Times. 

Also, check out my new 8-minute radio spot about the topic at for Word of Mouth by Virginia Prescott at NHPR. It was also a trip to appear on Sirius XM's widely-syndicated Michael Smerconish show, although a recording has not been archived. The controversy the post created was nicely covered in Concord's Union Leader.