Heidi Larson Explained

Heidi Larson
Citizenship:American
Fields:Anthropology
Spouse:Peter Piot

Heidi J. Larson, Lady Piot is an American anthropologist and the founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project.[1] [2] Larson headed Global Immunisation Communication at UNICEF[3] and she is the author of .[4] She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.[5]

Education and early career

The daughter of a priest and civil rights advocate, Larson grew up in Massachusetts.[6]

Larson worked for Save the Children in the West Bank and in Nepal after college. Working abroad got her interested in anthropology and she eventually graduated from the University of California in that discipline. She earned a Ph.D. in 1990. She worked for several companies in the 1990s, including Apple and Xerox. [7]

Work in immunisation

Larson went back to UNICEF in 2000, working on global communications for several of the agency's vaccination programs. She developed an expertise on working with local health workers to defuse rumors that threatened to derail vaccination initiatives. She founded the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which she still runs as of 2020, in addition to teaching anthropology, Risk and Decision Science.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

Since 2015, Larson has been leading a European Union project to support vaccination efforts in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, identifying and countering rumours that may reduce the effectiveness of the campaign. After working on ebola vaccination, the group is now debunking myths about the flu and COVID-19.[7]

Larson is Director of European Initiatives at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.[14] Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-chaired (alongside J. Stephen Morrison) the CSIS-LSHTM High-Level Panel on Vaccine Confidence and Misinformation in 2020.[15]

Describing herself as "a patient optimist", Larson understood early that significant efforts had to be made to fight misinformation about vaccines. Former UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said Larson "wasn't yelling 'The sky is falling', she was yelling, 'The sky could fall if we don't do something'".[7]

In a paper published in February 2021, Larson acknowledged extensive collaboration with, advisory board membership of, and funding from, vaccine manufacturers, especially the pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co. Inc.[16] She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.[17]

Other activities

Personal life

Larson is married to the Belgian virologist Peter Piot.[19]

Selected publications

References

  1. Web site: About : The Vaccine Confidence Project. www.vaccineconfidence.org. August 6, 2018.
  2. [#EBM|Larson et al., ''EBioMedicine'', 2018.]
  3. Web site: SpeakerHeidiLarson. Women Leaders in Global Health. en-US. August 6, 2018. September 1, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180901044522/https://www.wlghconference.org/speakerheidilarson. dead.
  4. Web site: Stuck Heidi J. Larson. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201019212007/https://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780190077242.html. October 19, 2020. October 19, 2020. Oxford University Press.
  5. News: 2021-12-07 . BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year? . en-GB . BBC News . 2022-12-16.
  6. Das. Pamela. September 26, 2020. Heidi Larson: shifting the conversation about vaccine confidence. The Lancet. 396. 10255. 877. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31612-3. 32919523. free.
  7. News: Anderson. Jenny. October 13, 2020. She Hunts Viral Rumors About Real Viruses. The new York Times. live. October 19, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201019163949/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/health/coronavirus-vaccine-hesitancy-larson.html?action=click&module=Top%2520Stories&pgtype=Homepage. October 19, 2020.
  8. Web site: Heidi Larson. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. en. August 6, 2018.
  9. Vaccines—Calling the Shots. PBS. August 26, 2015. August 12, 2018.
  10. Web site: The Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project Separates Vaccination Fact From Fiction. Camille. Chatterjee. August 2, 2017. Johnson & Johnson website. August 12, 2018.
  11. Web site: Rise in vaccine hesitancy related to pursuit of purity – Prof. Heidi Larson. April 26, 2018. Gary. Finnegan. horizon-magazine.eu. August 12, 2018. April 26, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180426141144/https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/rise-vaccine-hesitancy-related-pursuit-purity-prof-heidi-larson_en.html. dead.
  12. Cohen . Jon . France most skeptical country about vaccine safety . . American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) . September 8, 2016 . 0036-8075 . 10.1126/science.aah7280.
  13. Web site: Vaccine Confidence Varies Widely: Q&A with Heidi Larson . Global Health NOW . September 9, 2016 . Dayna . Myers . August 12, 2018 . August 12, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180812083148/https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2016-09/vaccine-confidence-varies-widely-qa-heidi-larson . dead .
  14. Web site: Heidi Larson Department of Health Metrics Sciences. depts.washington.edu. en. August 6, 2018.
  15. https://www.csis.org/analysis/call-action-csis-lshtm-high-level-panel-vaccine-confidence-and-misinformation Call to Action: CSIS-LSHTM High-Level Panel on Vaccine Confidence and Misinformation, October 19, 2020
  16. Loomba . Sahil . February 21, 2021 . Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA . Nature Human Behaviour . 5 . 7 . 960 . 10.1038/s41562-021-01172-y . 34239082 . 8264480 . 256703444 . en .
  17. News: 2021-12-07 . BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year? . en-GB . BBC News . 2022-12-16.
  18. https://virchowprize.org/council/ Council
  19. Web site: Peter Piot - Out to stop the Ebola virus he found . Financial Times . October 3, 2014 . September 29, 2018.

External links

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