Vaccine anxieties, vaccine preparedness

Perspectives from Africa in a Covid-19 era

Bibliographic Data

ID4593787
AuthorsMacedward Leach (0000-0002-1293-6848, University of Sussex), Hayley Macgregor (0000-0002-9392-9331, University of Sussex), Grace Akello (0000-0002-1228-013X, Gulu University), Lawrence Sao Babawo (0000-0002-9292-3325, Gulu University), Lawrence Babawo, Moses Baluku (Gulu University), Alice Desclaux (0000-0002-4268-2818, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Catherine Grant (0000-0003-2952-8426, University of Sussex), Foday Kamara (0009-0004-8096-7592, Njala University), Marion Nyakoi (0009-0006-0286-4883, Njala University), Melissa Parker (0000-0003-0829-2741, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), P Richards (0000-0001-5813-0228, Njala University), Esther Mokuwa, Esther Yei Mokuwa (0000-0001-6442-7423, Njala University), Bob Okello (Gulu University), Kelley Sams (0000-0001-7315-4818, Centre Norbert Elias), Khoudia Sow (0000-0002-7079-8869, Centre Hospitalier National Universitaire de Fann)
Year2022
Volume298
Pages114826
Publication date2022-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114826
PMID35228096
OpenAlexW4213265617
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited17

Global debates about vaccines as a key element of pandemic response and future preparedness in the era of Covid-19 currently focus on questions of supply, with attention to global injustice in vaccine distribution and African countries as rightful beneficiaries of international de-regulation and financing initiatives such as COVAX. At the same time, vaccine demand and uptake are seen to be threatened by hesitancy, often attributed to an increasingly globalised anti-vaxx movement and its propagation of misinformation and conspiracy, now reaching African populations through a social media 'infodemic'. Underplayed in these debates are the socio-political contexts through which vaccine technologies enter and are interpreted within African settings, and the crucial intersections between supply and demand. We explore these through a 'vaccine anxieties' framework attending to both desires for and worries about vaccines, as shaped by bodily, societal and wider political understandings and experiences. This provides an analytical lens to organise and interpret ethnographic and narrative accounts in local and national settings in Uganda and Sierra Leone, and their (dis)connections with global debates and geopolitics. In considering the socially-embedded reasons why people want or do not want Covid-19 vaccines, and how this intersects with the dynamics of vaccine supply, access and distribution in rapidly-unfolding epidemic situations, we bring new, expanded insights into debates about vaccine confidence and vaccine preparedness

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Economic growth · Economics · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Outbreak · Pandemic · Political science · Preparedness · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Law · Medicine · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research · Virology

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