Scott Ratzan | Editor-in-Chief
Cuny School of Public Health

  Scott Ratzan, MD, MPA, MA, is a physician, public health leader, and internationally recognized expert in health communication, health literacy, vaccination, and quality health information. He has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of medicine, public health, policy, and communication, with a particular focus on how people and institutions can use high-quality information to make better health decisions. Dr. Ratzan is Co-Chair of the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All, and founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Communication and a Distinguished Lecturer at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. He has held senior leadership roles in global health, public affairs, and health communication and has contributed extensively to the development of health literacy as a field of research and practice. His scholarship has helped shape the field of vaccine communication and vaccine literacy. He has published extensively on vaccination, vaccine confidence, risk communication, misinformation, and trust, including work in JAMA, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Vaccine, Nature Medicine, BMJ, and the New England Journal of Medicine. His work has addressed vaccine uptake and underutilization, vaccine hesitancy, primary-care vaccination, and communication challenges surrounding emerging technologies including mRNA vaccines. His 2021 NEJM perspective, “Missing the Point—How Primary Care Can Overcome Covid-19 Vaccine ‘Hesitancy,’” examined the importance of trusted clinicians and primary-care settings in improving vaccination. Dr. Ratzan has also brought vaccine communication into public policy and mainstream international discourse. He co-authored the Washington Post opinion piece “States are failing on vaccinations. The federal government must lead,” addressing declining vaccination coverage, measles outbreaks, and the need to counter vaccine misinformation. He has written for the Financial Times on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and the importance of persuasion and effective communication in increasing vaccine uptake. His current work focuses on quality health information and information integrity in an era of digital media, artificial intelligence, polarization, misinformation, and declining institutional trust. He has written and spoken extensively about how public health institutions can communicate uncertainty, build trust, and enable people to make informed health decisions. He is a frequent international speaker and has addressed audiences across Europe and globally on vaccination, health literacy, public trust, information integrity, and the future of health communication.