Doubts and concerns about vaccine safety significantly impact public acceptance and demand for vaccines. Therefore, Ministries of Health and their technical partners must promote effective communication strategies and materials on the topic of vaccine safety and describe the risks and benefits of vaccines.
The Region needs sustained efforts to effectively communicate to the public the available evidence on the safety and risks related to vaccines. Digital communication is a crucial component of the current vaccine safety landscape.
PAHO continues to provide technical cooperation with Member States in the fields of risk communication and community engagement, including strengthening web pages that communicate information and address concerns around vaccine safety.
The end goal is to strengthen the public’s access to reliable sources on vaccine safety information.
About the WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net (VSN)
The WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) is a network of websites run by the World Health Organization (WHO) that helps internet users find reliable information on vaccine safety. The WHO awards the VSN logo to those websites that meet the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) criteria for good information practices, as a seal of recognition for reliable and evidence-based information on vaccine safety. These criteria can be found here.
VSN criteria
You can find the detailed VSN evaluation criteria by clickling on each language below:
VSN Expansion Project
Through the expansion of the WHO’s VSN in the Americas, PAHO seeks to increase the number of online resources that publish accurate and consistent information or vaccine safety in Spanish and Portuguese, and across the Caribbean.
PAHO’s VSN Expansion Toolkit
This diagnostic tool allows organizations to evaluate their web pages on vaccine safety against the criteria of the VSN and determine whether there are any gaps or areas of improvement. Also, this tool allows organizations to draft a list of steps they can take to comply with VSN criteria.
This document offers guidance for developing a content generation strategy specifically for web pages that focus on vaccine safety. It helps organizations systematically review and update their web pages to consistently deliver accurate, current and pertinent content. Also, it supports organizations in understanding the needs of their audience and tailoring their content to address the most urgent questions. This analytical process helps to enhance the credibility of the organization as an authoritative and reliable source of vaccine safety information.
This document offers guidance on developing editorial policies for web pages on vaccine safety, in alignment with the VSN criteria. It decribes essential elements such as processes for content creation; evidence-based practices to select the scientific information to be published; standards to cite reliable sources, and examples from current VSN members.
Additional resources for communicating about vaccines and vaccine safety
Join the VSN
VSN membership application
- To start the VSN membership application process, website owners should send an email expressing their interest to pvsupport@who.int with a copy to wengx@who.int
- Including the VSN evaluation form (here) will help make the evaluation process faster.
- Once websites meet the criteria, our colleagues at VSN will guide them through the process of submitting the incorporation documents.
