Rethinking vaccine policy making in an era of vaccine hesitancy: time to rebuild, not remodel?

Recently in this journal, David Ropeik argued for imposing additional burdens upon individuals who refused vaccines for themselves or for their children. Specifically, Ropeik advocated for policies that would decrease the ease of claiming vaccine exemptions and restricting unvaccinated children participation in social activities. We argue that, in order to derive the optimal societal benefit from modern vaccinology in an era of vaccine hesitancy, we need to consider doing more than conventional remodeling of current policies. We may need to fundamentally redesign and rebuild.