The recent cases of measles outbreaks in US and Europe reignited the debate on vaccines, the science behind them and the conflict between the right to individual freedom and the state intervention. Amongst the several factors that contribute to the decrease of vaccination coverage – especially in some groups – vaccine hesitancy is one of particular interest, which should require much greater attention from public health and epidemiology, medical sociology, anthropology, and the behavioural, economic and political sciences.

For this reason, PLOS Currents: Outbreaks and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) issued a call for papers aimed at building upon the insights collected from a 2013 workshop on the topic of vaccine hesitancy. This resulted in a collection of papers [13] that investigates the social discourse surrounding vaccination, global perceptions and outcomes of vaccination, and the general issue of confidence or trust in healthcare or government establishments that can underpin medical decisions.