A Vaccine for your Mind
A Vaccine for Your Mind
The science and safety behind our greatest public health tools
By Mario Barro, PhD, Derek DiRocco, PhD, Tim Howard, PhD, and Peter Kolchinsky, PhD
Photo by Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo on Unsplash
This report was updated June 25, 2025 with additional commentary around FDA’s May 2025 COVID-19 vaccine guidance.
February 14, 2025
The public has taken a renewed interest in discussing vaccines, with many people asking to be convinced that vaccines are safe and effective enough to be used as widely as modern medicine recommends. In the hope of reaching some more people seeking answers to common questions, we’ve prepared this Q&A document. Medicine is complicated, and the current discourse is noisy, but it’s possible to bridge the gap between experts and patients by breaking down the jargon. We’ll try to do that here.
We wrote this with our own friends and families in mind because we believe that everyone should be able to get clear answers to their questions. We hope it is useful to you.