Reframing medicine's publics: The local as a public of vaccine refusal

HY Lawrence, BL Hausman… - Journal of Medical …, 2014 - Springer
HY Lawrence, BL Hausman, CJ Dannenberg
Journal of Medical Humanities, 2014Springer
Although medical and public health practitioners aim for high rates of vaccination, parent
vaccination concerns confound doctors and complicate doctor-patient interactions. Medical
and public health researchers have studied and attempted to counter antivaccination
sentiments, but recommended approaches to dispel vaccination concerns have failed to
produce long-lasting effects. We use observations made during a small study in a rural area
in a southeastern state to demonstrate how a shift away from analyzing vaccination …
Abstract
Although medical and public health practitioners aim for high rates of vaccination, parent vaccination concerns confound doctors and complicate doctor-patient interactions. Medical and public health researchers have studied and attempted to counter antivaccination sentiments, but recommended approaches to dispel vaccination concerns have failed to produce long-lasting effects. We use observations made during a small study in a rural area in a southeastern state to demonstrate how a shift away from analyzing vaccination skepticism as a national issue with a global remedy reveals the nuances in vaccination sentiments based on locality. Instead of seeing antivaccinationists as a distinct public based on statistical commonalities, we argue that examining vaccination beliefs and practices at the local level offers a fuller picture of the contextualized nature of vaccination decisions within the psychosocial spaces of families. A view of vaccination that emphasizes the local public, rather than a globally conceived antivaccination public, enables medical humanists and rhetoricians to offer important considerations for improving communications about vaccinations in clinical settings.
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