How to Talk About Vaccines on Television
In 2008, John Porter, a Washington, D.C. lawyer and former Republican member of Congress, stood in front of a group of scientists at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and urged them to make their cases to the media and to the people. “America needs you,” Porter said, “fighting for science.”
At the time, the number of science articles in American newspapers had shrunk dramatically. Science on television also suffered. CNN dismissed its entire science, space, environment, and technology unit. According to a National Science Foundation report, network nightly news programs from 2000 to 2012 devoted less than 2 percent of air time to science, space, and technology, and less than 1 percent to biotechnology and basic medical research.
Nonetheless, occasionally scientists are asked to overcome their personal reticence, the verbal handcuffs imposed by the scientific method, and the cultural, political, and psychological forces working against them to talk to the general public. I am one of those scientists. Since my first television appearance in 1993 on a program called Good Day Philadelphia, I’ve been interviewed on national morning and evening news shows, from CBS This Morning to CNN, comedy shows like The Colbert Report, and collaborated on scientific documentaries on Frontline and Nova. Along the way, I’ve learned some painful, hard-earned, and occasionally humorous lessons. Here are four of them.
n September 2007, I was asked to appear with actress Jenny McCarthy on . McCarthy would be talking about a vaccine she was certain had
