{"title":"Hopes, hesitancy and the risky business of vaccine development","authors":"M. Calnan, T. Douglass","doi":"10.1080/13698575.2020.1846687","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Recent policy conversations about vaccination programmes primarily target the problem of vaccine hesitancy and the lack of public participation at the level required for community immunity, or herd immunity. In this editorial, we will first explore the nature of public vaccine hesitancy, review what is known and demonstrate the significance of understanding vaccine hesitancy in the COVID-19 context. We argue that sociological research indicates that to sufficiently grasp vaccine hesitancy in the twenty-first century it is necessary to consider several aspects: the nature of medical decision-making, trust, risk and social responsibility, and the role of information technology and various forms of media. There are also questions about what influences the (successful) development and provision of a vaccine – issues that have been brought sharply into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, in the second half of the editorial, we move to consider the supply side of vaccination. We examine what shapes this configuration and consider the role of key players such as those who manufacture the vaccines and, in turn, those who regulate development, again with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.","PeriodicalId":47341,"journal":{"name":"Health Risk & Society","volume":"59 1","pages":"291 - 304"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2020-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"14","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Risk & Society","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2020.1846687","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 14
Abstract
Recent policy conversations about vaccination programmes primarily target the problem of vaccine hesitancy and the lack of public participation at the level required for community immunity, or herd immunity. In this editorial, we will first explore the nature of public vaccine hesitancy, review what is known and demonstrate the significance of understanding vaccine hesitancy in the COVID-19 context. We argue that sociological research indicates that to sufficiently grasp vaccine hesitancy in the twenty-first century it is necessary to consider several aspects: the nature of medical decision-making, trust, risk and social responsibility, and the role of information technology and various forms of media. There are also questions about what influences the (successful) development and provision of a vaccine – issues that have been brought sharply into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, in the second half of the editorial, we move to consider the supply side of vaccination. We examine what shapes this configuration and consider the role of key players such as those who manufacture the vaccines and, in turn, those who regulate development, again with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.
期刊介绍:
Health Risk & Society is an international scholarly journal devoted to a theoretical and empirical understanding of the social processes which influence the ways in which health risks are taken, communicated, assessed and managed. Public awareness of risk is associated with the development of high profile media debates about specific risks. Although risk issues arise in a variety of areas, such as technological usage and the environment, they are particularly evident in health. Not only is health a major issue of personal and collective concern, but failure to effectively assess and manage risk is likely to result in health problems.