The Vaccine Knowledge Project (VKP)
The Vaccine Knowledge Project website provides independent, evidence-based information about
vaccines and infectious diseases. All our content is aimed at the general public; we provide
information not easily found elsewhere and back it up with references to scientific research. We also
make powerful short films showing the impact that infectious diseases have had on individuals and
their families, which complement the information sections of the website. The website has been
hugely successful, with over 142,000 page views worldwide in the last year. 40% of these have
occurred in the last three months, showing that website traffic is steadily increasing.
Why did we set up the VKP?
Immunisation can be a complicated and contentious issue, and we felt there was a need for an
independent website about vaccines and infectious diseases which was not linked to the NHS or the
UK government. Our website is overseen by academic staff from Oxford Vaccine Group at the cutting
edge of vaccine research, who check content for accuracy and ensure it is as unbiased as possible.
What’s on the website?
Our content is designed to help people make informed decisions about vaccine issues. Vaccines have
been so successful that many serious infectious diseases are rarely seen in the UK any more. As a
result, people are in danger of becoming complacent. Our sections on vaccine-preventable diseases
give comprehensive information about the risks of the diseases, and our short films help to bring
home the potential consequences of not vaccinating. We also provide clear graphical information to
show the impact of vaccines on disease cases in the UK, or the risks of infectious diseases.
How infectious is measles?
A custom-made graphic from the VKP website.
Graph showing the impact of the MenC vaccine on disease cases.
Another issue is that the UK immunisation schedule has become increasingly complex, with 14
immunisations against 12 diseases due before a child starts nursery. The schedule has undergone
major changes in 2013-14 and our experience is that this can lead to confusion even amongst
parents who are positive about vaccination. The VKP provides up-to-date information in an easily
accessible format, explaining recent changes, covering options for individuals with contraindications
to standard vaccines, and providing links to other sources of information.
While the majority of UK parents have their children vaccinated according the official NHS schedule,
there is a small but significant number of ‘vaccine hesitant’ parents who delay or refuse vaccinations,
often for reasons which have little or no basis in scientific fact. Anti-vaccination information is
readily available, perpetuating myths about the risks of vaccination (e.g. that the MMR vaccine
causes autism, or that combination vaccines pose too great a challenge to a baby’s immune system).
The VKP counters these myths across the whole website and especially in our ‘FAQs about Vaccines’
section which provides comprehensive and straightforward responses to many of the concerns
commonly voiced by parents. The VKP also provides an excellent reference source for people who
are positive about vaccination and want to back up their position with reliable facts from an
independent source.
How do we know the VKP has had an impact?
Website traffic is increasing month on month – we had over 22,000 page views in October 2014. In
April 2013 we published a blog called ‘How dangerous is measles’ which has had a total of 27,500
views and is still getting several hundred views a month, with an average time on page of nearly 5
minutes (showing that people are reading it, not just visiting and moving on). Some of our short films
have had equally wide reach. ‘What whooping cough is really like’
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WAwJGJ1R4k) has had 44,000 YouTube views worldwide.
Some of our pages provide information which is hard to find elsewhere; this is particularly true of
our ‘Vaccine Ingredients’ page, which as a result is responsible for almost a quarter of our total page
views. One user recently said: ‘Thank you for an excellent website. This is the best site I have come
across for comprehensive and accurate information about vaccinations in the UK.’
Google Analytics snapshot of the last year on the VKP website.
What are we doing next?
We use the emails we get from website visitors to improve and extend the information we provide.
As well as keeping the site updated, we plan to provide more information on topics such as how the
immune system works and the different ways of making vaccines. We are also creating an iPhone
app which provides a concise version of the VKP website in a user-friendly format which can be
easily accessed ‘on the go’. On the basis of our website traffic we expect this to be widely used when
it is launched.
Contact details:
Sarah Loving, Vaccine Knowledge Project Manager, Oxford Vaccine Group, Department of
Paediatrics, University of Oxford
Sarah.loving@paediatrics.ox.ac.uk
01865 857420