The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) has launched a program to equip health care providers with resources to confront vaccine hesitancy and immunization delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kristina A. Bryant, M.D., specialist with Norton Children’s Infectious Diseases, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, and president of PIDS, is working with Gary S. Marshall, M.D., also with Norton Children’s Infectious Diseases and a leading authority on vaccination, and others in the national effort to reduce vaccine hesitancy.

The program, Vaccine Education From Training to Practice, initially was developed as a training tool, but is appropriate for any provider who wants a refresher on vaccine essentials.

The program includes access to The Vaccine Handbook App, which contains the full content of “The Vaccine Handbook: A Practical Guide for Clinicians.” Also known as “The Purple Book,” this definitive guide was written by Dr. Marshall and is now in its ninth edition.

“The goal is to provide a comprehensive vaccine education program to remedy knowledge gaps along the spectrum of professional development, beginning in residency training and extending into the practice years, through lifelong learning,” Dr. Marshall said.

The program includes a curriculum created by the Collaboration for Vaccination Education and Research (CoVER) that improves vaccine knowledge and confidence when counseling parents about immunizations.

Drs. Bryant and Marshall are professors of pediatrics at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Dr. Marshall is chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UofL.