•Vaccination prevents 2–3 million deaths a year.•Vaccine hesitancy and refusal has caused a resurgence in preventable diseases.•Interventions for vaccines need to be multi-pronged approaches. Despite overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations, a growing number of people are reluctant to receive recommended vaccinations or refuse them altogether. Vaccination currently prevents 2–3 million deaths a year and a further 1.5 million deaths could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved. However, recently vaccine hesitancy has led to a resurgence of preventable diseases. There is heterogeneity in vaccine hesitant individuals and a diversity of situations in which vaccine hesitancy can arise, thus requiring that interventions to address vaccine hesitancy be context-specific and problem-specific.