Heidi Larson

The daughter of a priest and civil rights advocate, Larson grew up in Massachusetts.{{Cite journal|last=Das|first=Pamela|date=September 26, 2020|title=Heidi Larson: shifting the conversation about vaccine confidence|journal=The Lancet|volume=396|issue=10255|page=877|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31612-3|pmid=32919523|doi-access=free}}

Larson worked for Save the Children in the West Bank and in Nepal after college. Working abroad got her interested in anthropology and she eventually graduated from the University of California in that discipline. She earned a Ph.D. in 1990. She worked for several companies in the 1990s, including Apple and Xerox. {{Cite news|last=Anderson|first=Jenny|date=October 13, 2020|title=She Hunts Viral Rumors About Real Viruses|work=The new York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/health/coronavirus-vaccine-hesitancy-larson.html|url-status=live|access-date=October 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019163949/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/health/coronavirus-vaccine-hesitancy-larson.html?action=click&module=Top%2520Stories&pgtype=Homepage|archive-date=October 19, 2020}}

Larson went back to UNICEF in 2000, working on global communications for several of the agency's vaccination programs. She developed an expertise on working with local health workers to defuse rumors that threatened to derail vaccination initiatives. She founded the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which she still runs as of 2020, in addition to teaching anthropology, Risk and Decision Science.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/larson.heidi|title=Heidi Larson|website=London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine|language=en|access-date=August 6, 2018}}{{cite AV media| url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/vaccines-calling-shots.html| title=Vaccines—Calling the Shots| publisher=PBS| date=August 26, 2015| access-date=August 12, 2018}}{{cite web| url=https://www.jnj.com/health-and-wellness/the-director-of-the-vaccine-confidence-project-separates-vaccination-fact-from-fiction-unseen-enemy| title=The Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project Separates Vaccination Fact From Fiction| first=Camille| last=Chatterjee| date= August 2, 2017| publisher=Johnson & Johnson website| access-date=August 12, 2018}}{{cite web| title=Rise in vaccine hesitancy related to pursuit of purity – Prof. Heidi Larson| date=April 26, 2018| first=Gary| last=Finnegan| url=https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/rise-vaccine-hesitancy-related-pursuit-purity-prof-heidi-larson_en.html| website=horizon-magazine.eu| access-date=August 12, 2018| archive-date=April 26, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426141144/https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/rise-vaccine-hesitancy-related-pursuit-purity-prof-heidi-larson_en.html| url-status=dead}}{{cite journal | last=Cohen | first=Jon | title=France most skeptical country about vaccine safety | journal=Science | publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | date=September 8, 2016 | issn=0036-8075 | doi=10.1126/science.aah7280}}{{cite web | title=Vaccine Confidence Varies Widely: Q&A with Heidi Larson | website=Global Health NOW | date=September 9, 2016 | url=https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2016-09/vaccine-confidence-varies-widely-qa-heidi-larson | first=Dayna | last=Myers | access-date=August 12, 2018 | archive-date=August 12, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180812083148/https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2016-09/vaccine-confidence-varies-widely-qa-heidi-larson | url-status=dead }}

Since 2015, Larson has been leading a European Union project to support vaccination efforts in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, identifying and countering rumours that may reduce the effectiveness of the campaign. After working on ebola vaccination, the group is now debunking myths about the flu and COVID-19.

Larson is Director of European Initiatives at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.{{Cite web|url=https://depts.washington.edu/healthms/people/heidi-larson/|title=Heidi Larson {{!}} Department of Health Metrics Sciences|website=depts.washington.edu|language=en|access-date=August 6, 2018}} Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-chaired (alongside J. Stephen Morrison) the CSIS-LSHTM High-Level Panel on Vaccine Confidence and Misinformation in 2020.[https://www.csis.org/analysis/call-action-csis-lshtm-high-level-panel-vaccine-confidence-and-misinformation Call to Action: CSIS-LSHTM High-Level Panel on Vaccine Confidence and Misinformation, October 19, 2020] Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Describing herself as "a patient optimist", Larson understood early that significant efforts had to be made to fight misinformation about vaccines. Former UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said Larson "wasn't yelling 'The sky is falling', she was yelling, 'The sky could fall if we don't do something'".

In a paper published in February 2021, Larson acknowledged extensive collaboration with, advisory board membership of, and funding from, vaccine manufacturers, especially the pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co. Inc.{{Cite journal |last=Loomba |first=Sahil |date=February 21, 2021 |title=Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA |journal=Nature Human Behaviour |volume=5 |issue=7 |page=960 |doi=10.1038/s41562-021-01172-y |pmid=34239082 |pmc=8264480 |s2cid=256703444 |language=en }} She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.{{Cite news |date=2021-12-07 |title=BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59514598 |access-date=2022-12-16}}

• Virchow Prize for Global Health, Member of the Council (2022–present)[https://virchowprize.org/council/ Council] Virchow Prize for Global Health.

Larson is married to the Belgian virologist Peter Piot.{{cite web | title=Peter Piot - Out to stop the Ebola virus he found | website=Financial Times | date=October 3, 2014 | url=https://www.ft.com/content/da2cf694-4970-11e4-8d68-00144feab7de | access-date=September 29, 2018}}

{{Scholia}}

• {{Cite book|last=Larson|first=Heidi J.|title=Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don't Go Away|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2020|isbn=9780190077242|location=Oxford}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=de Figueiredo|first1=Alexandre|last2=Simas|first2=Clarissa|last3=Karafillakis|first3=Emilie|last4=Paterson|first4=Pauline|last5=Larson|first5=Heidi|date=September 10, 2020|title=Mapping global trends in vaccine confidence and investigating barriers to vaccine uptake: a large-scale retrospective temporal modelling study|url= |journal=The Lancet|volume=396|issue=10255|pages=898–908|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31558-0|pmid=32919524|pmc=7607345|doi-access=free}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Larson | first1=Heidi J. | last2=Figueiredo | first2=Alexandre de | last3=Xiahong | first3=Zhao | last4=Schulz | first4=William S. | last5=Verger | first5=Pierre | last6=Johnston | first6=Iain G. | last7=Cook | first7=Alex R. | last8=Jones | first8=Nick S. | title=The State of Vaccine Confidence 2016: Global Insights Through a 67-Country Survey | journal=eBioMedicine | volume=12 | date=October 1, 2016 | issn=2352-3964 | pmid=27658738 | doi=10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.08.042 | pages=295–301 | url=https://www.ebiomedicine.com/article/S2352-3964(16)30398-X/abstract | ref=EBM | pmc=5078590 | access-date=August 6, 2018 | archive-date=June 2, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602233426/https://www.ebiomedicine.com/article/S2352-3964(16)30398-X/abstract | url-status=dead }}

• {{cite web | last=Morrison | first=J. Stephen | title=Transcript: Interview with Dr. Heidi Larson, Executive Director of the aids2031 Project | website=Center for Strategic and International Studies | date=September 17, 2010 | url=https://www.csis.org/blogs/smart-global-health/transcript-interview-dr-heidi-larson-executive-director-aids2031-project }}

{{100 Women by BBC in 2021}}

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Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American anthropologists

Category:21st-century American anthropologists

Category:21st-century American women

Category:Academics of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Category:American women anthropologists

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American women academics

Category:Kent School alumni

Category:Vaccination advocates