Public Health in the Age of Anxiety : Religious and Cultural Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada

__Public Health in the Age of Anxiety__ enhances both the public and scholarly understanding of the motivations behind vaccine hesitancy in Canada. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction and theory Introduction: Seeking a Better Conversation 1. Crises of Trust and Truth: Religion, Culture, and Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada 2. Vaccine Hesitancy: Ethical Considerations from Multiple Perspectives 3. The Role of Risk Perception in Vaccine Hesitancy and the Challenge of Communication History 4. Learning from Smallpox Inoculation Refusal: Early Scientific Debates and the Evolution of Vaccine Refusal 5. Not without Risk: The Complex History of Vaccine Resistance in Central Canada, 1885–1960 Biomedicine, The State, And Vaccine-Hesitant/ Rejecting Communities 6. A Portrait Of Vaccine-Hesitant Canadians 7. Vaccine Hesitancy And The Use Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine 8. Epidemiologic Trends In Vaccine-Preventable Diseases And Immunization In Canada 9. Canada’S Vaccine Safety System Vaccine Politics In Clinical, Media, And Community Settings 10. “It’S Your Body, Your Decision”: An Anthropological Exploration Of Hpv Vaccine Hesitancy 11. Approaching Vaccine-Hesitant Parents: A Clinician’S Perspective 12. The Roots Of Vaccine Hesitancy 13. Public Health And Personal Heuristics Conclusion 14. Continuing The Conversation Appendix Contributors Index "Controversies and scepticism surrounding vaccinations, though not new, have increasingly come to the fore as more individuals decide not to inoculate themselves or their children for cultural, religious, or other reasons. Their personal decisions put the rights of the individual on a collision course with public and community safety. Public Health in the Age of Anxiety enhances both the public and scholarly understanding of the motivations behind vaccine hesitancy in Canada. The volume brings into conversation people working within such fields as philosophy, medicine, epidemiology, history, nursing, anthropology, public policy, and religious studies. The contributors critically analyse issues surrounding vaccine safety, the arguments against vaccines, the scale of anti-vaccination sentiment, public dissemination of medical research, and the effect of private beliefs on individual decision-making and public health. These essays model and encourage the type of productive engagement that is necessary to clarify the value of vaccines and reduce the tension between pro and anti-vaccination groups."--Résumé de l'éditeur

Controversies and scepticism surrounding vaccinations, though not new, have increasingly come to the fore as more individuals decide not to inoculate themselves or their children for cultural, religious, or other reasons. Their personal decisions put the rights of the individual on a collision course with public and community safety.

Public Health in the Age of Anxiety enhances both the public and scholarly understanding of the motivations behind vaccine hesitancy in Canada. The volume brings into conversation people working within such fields as philosophy, medicine, epidemiology, history, nursing, anthropology, public policy, and religious studies. The contributors critically analyse issues surrounding vaccine safety, the arguments against vaccines, the scale of anti-vaccination sentiment, public dissemination of medical research, and the effect of private beliefs on individual decision-making and public health. These essays model and encourage the type of productive engagement that is necessary to clarify the value of vaccines and reduce the tension between pro and anti-vaccination groups.