
Vaccine reluctance and refusal are no longer limited to the margins of society. Debates around vaccines' necessity -- along with questions around their side effects -- have gone mainstream, blending with geopolitical conflicts, political campaigns, celebrity causes, and "natural" lifestyles to win a growing number of hearts and minds. Today's anti-vaccine positions find audiences where they've never existed previously.Stuck examines how the issues surrounding vaccine hesitancy are, more than anything, about people feeling left out of the conversation. A new dialogue is long overdue, one that addresses the many types of vaccine hesitancy and the social factors that perpetuate them. To do this, Stuck provides a clear-eyed examination of the social vectors that transmit vaccine rumors, their manifestations around the globe, and how these individual threads are all connected.
This book investigates the underlying social, political, and psychological drivers that transform vaccine hesitancy from a fringe concern into a mainstream phenomenon. Heidi J. Larson, a professor of anthropology and risk and decision science, utilizes her extensive research into global health communication to argue that vaccine refusal is rarely about the science itself. Instead, she posits that hesitancy is a symptom of broader social alienation, distrust in institutions, and the rapid spread of rumors through digital and interpersonal networks.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts in public health and sociology recognize this work as a foundational text for understanding the human dimensions of vaccine refusal. Readers frequently note the accessible yet rigorous nature of the prose, which balances academic insight with clear, actionable observations on communication strategy.
Page Count:
200
Publication Date:
2020-07-16
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190077247
ISBN-13:
9780190077242
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