National Geographic Taps Mercy Professor’s Expert Opinion on Public Expectations of Future Vaccines

A new article about the public’s expectations of future vaccines published this week in National Geographic, quoted epidemiologist and psychology professor Rossi Hassad, Ph.D., M.P.H., for his expertise on infectious diseases and behavioral epidemiology.

Hassad described his contributions to the article, “How COVID-19 is changing our expectations for other vaccines,” as reflecting “an intersection of epidemiology and psychology, which is becoming increasingly relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Hassad was quoted extensively throughout the article, which also referenced scientific publications, nationwide surveys, and sources including the Washington Post, Harvard School of Public Health, and a government adviser on vaccine policy. In one of his comments Hassad declared that the efficacy of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines together with the speed of development “will quite likely raise the bar in terms of public expectations: wanting more, better and faster when it comes to … vaccines for other diseases.”

He also remarked, drawing from his many published opinions on COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy, that developing targeted messages based on specific beliefs, rather than generic messages, is crucial to facilitating meaningful behavioral change.

Access the full text of the National Geographic article here.