The National Institutes of Health has terminated dozens of grants for scientific research projects

related to vaccine use and hesitancy. Researchers got written notices that their studies no longer

aligned with the administration's priorities and that it is the policy of NIH not to prioritize

research activities that focus gaining scientific knowledge

on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and or explore ways to improve vaccine interest

and commitment. Dr. Sophia Newcomer was one of the researchers whose grant was canceled.

She's an associate professor at the University of Montana. Her work focuses on access to

health care in rural communities. She spoke with Ali Rogan. Thank you so much for joining us.

What was this NIH grant funding? My work focuses on figuring out ways we can improve vaccination

services, particularly for rural families. And so for this specific

project that got cut, we were working to develop tools to measure the quality of immunization

services that children receive. So you were looking at the quality of immunization services.

This grant cut was about vaccine hesitancy. Specifically, they said, how much of your

research was looking at specifically at that issue of vaccine hesitancy? Sure. So my project

involved analyzing existing data on vaccinations across the U.S. And even though we were only

partway through our project, we already had some important

findings. And one of the things we were finding is that when children in the US fall behind

are missing vaccines, a main issue are practical challenges to accessing high quality vaccination care.

So while we did see that some under vaccination in the US might be due to parental

hesitancy, practical challenges to accessing vaccines, such as having clinics nearby that you can access,

having a regular medical home for your child, having regular

medical insurance are also challenges in accessing vaccines in the U.S.

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