The Past and Future of Vaccine Hesitancy Vaccine Hesitancy: The History of an Idea
The vaccine hesitancy concept has been used in technical and policy circles over the last decade to explain challenges with vaccine uptake, with the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring vaccine hesitancy a top ten threat to human health in 2019. However, the concept has also been controversial. Even some experts most closely associated with the term argue that it has been inappropriately used to blame individuals for systemic failures, especially during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. This paper traces the emergence of the concept of vaccine hesitancy, drawing on in-depth interviews with global experts and analysis of documents and publications from a WHO working group that developed the concept between 2012 and 2014. Our analysis highlights several key dynamics that help to explain how the idea of vaccine hesitancy has developed and circulated amongst technical experts, academic researchers, policymakers, the media, and the public. No booking required.
Date: 20 January 2025, 16:00
Venue: Maison Française Library, 2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE
Speaker: Katie Attwell (University of Western Australia)
Organising department: Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Alexia Lewis