Vaccine Narratives and Public Health: Investigating Criticisms of H1N1 Pandemic Vaccination

Conclusions In order to understand the ways in which individuals make decisions regarding vaccine use, it is important to access the public discourse surrounding vaccination. Such narratives incorporate ideas about vaccinations which, while contrary to medical and scientific viewpoints, underpins the public understanding of vaccines. As such, it is important to see vaccine hesitancy as much a result of public discourse as it is a problem of individual decision-making. The Council of Europe’s criticisms of the use of vaccines during the H1N1 Pandemic reflect many dominant discourses – lay understandings of vaccination and public representations of vaccination -that may inform vaccine hesitancy. Contestations such as this one, and the ways in which such debates are subsequently picked up by the media, have the potential to significantly shape the public discourse. Simultaneously, this debate mirrors and mobilises common sentiments surrounding vaccines. Key to the Council of Europe’s account were three issues: the problem of trust in relation to the decision to use vaccines to combat H1N1, the problem of efficacy in terms of vaccines generally and the H1N1 vaccine specifically, and the problem of the risk posed by mass vaccination and the safety of the H1N1 vaccines. Examining the vaccine counter-narratives provides information that may be considered in addressing vaccine hesitancy. Trust building will be central to the task of impacting upon the public debate. Likewise, e...
Source: PLOS Currents Outbreaks - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Source Type: research