Main description:

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. Rather than an acrimonious debate between advocates and hesitant patients the contributors critically analyze 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.

Contents:

Introduction and Theory Introduction: Seeking a Better Conversation Paul Bramadat 1. Crises of Trust and Truth: Religion, Culture, and Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada Paul Bramadat 2. Vaccine Hesitancy: Ethical Considerations from Multiple Perspectives Kieran C. O'Doherty, Christine Smith, and C. Meghan McMurtry 3. The Role of Risk Perception in Vaccine Hesitancy and the Challenge of Communication Conrad G. Brunk HISTORY 4. Learning from Smallpox Inoculation Refusal: Early Scientific Debates and the Evolution of Vaccine Refusal Real Roy 5. Not Without Risk: The Complex History of Vaccine Resistance in Central Canada, 1885-1960 Heather MacDougall and Laurence Monnais Biomedicine, the State and Vaccine Hesitant/Rejecting Communities 6. A Portrait of Vaccine-hesitant Canadians Maryse Guay, Eve Dube, and Caroline Laberge 7. Vaccine Hesitancy and the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Eve Dube, Chantal Sauvageau, and Dominique Gagnon 8. Epidemiologic Trends in Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and Immunization in Canada Julie A. Bettinger and Shannon E. MacDonald 9. Canada's Vaccine Safety System Monika Naus, Barbara Law, and Aline Rifret vaccine politics IN Clinical, MEDIA, and community SETTINGS 10. "It's Your Body, Your Decision": An Anthropological Exploration of HPV Vaccine Hesitancy: Jennafer Roberts and Lisa M. Mitchell 11. Approaching Vaccine-hesitant Parents - The Clinician's Perspective Francois D. Boucher 12. The Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy Andre Picard 13. Public Health and Personal Heuristics Noni E. MacDonald CONCLUSION 14. Continuing the Conversation Paul Bramadat, Julie A. Bettinger, and Maryse Guay APPENDIX INDEX Contributors