Public health in the age of anxiety : religious and cultural roots of vaccine hesitancy in Canada

Bramadat, Paul, 1967- (editor.). Guay, Maryse, (editor.). Bettinger, Julie A., (editor.). Roy, Réal, (editor.).

Summary: "Controversies and skepticism 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. 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."--

Record details

ISBN: 9781487520120
ISBN: 9781487500207
ISBN: 1487500203
ISBN: 1487520123
Physical Description: print
vii, 398 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: Toronto ; University of Toronto Press, [2017]
Copyright: ©2017

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Crises of trust and truth : religion, culture, and vaccine hesitancy in Canada / Paul Bramadat -- Vaccine hesitancy : ethical considerations from multiple perspectives / Kieran C. O'Doherty, Christine Smith, and C. Meghan McMurtry -- The role of risk perception in vaccine hesitancy and the challenge of communication / Conrad G. Brunk -- Learning from smallpox inoculation refusal : early scientific debates and the evolution of vaccine refusal / Réal Roy -- Not without risk : the complex history of vaccine resistance in central Canada, 1885-1960 / Heather MacDougall and Laurence Monnais -- A portrait of vaccine- hesitant Canadians / Maryse Guay, Eve Dubé, and Caroline Laberge -- Vaccine hesitancy and the use of complementary and alternative medicine / Eve Dubé, Chantal Sauvageau, and Dominique Gagnon -- Epidemiologic trends in vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization in Canada / Julie A. Bettinger and Shannon E. MacDonald -- Canada's vaccine safety system / Monika Naus, Barbara Law, and Aline Rinfret -- "It's your body, your decision" : an anthropological exploration of HPV vaccine hesitancy / Jennafer Roberts and Lisa M. Mitchell -- Approaching vaccine-hesitant parents : a clinician's perspective / François D. Boucher -- The roots of vaccine hesitancy / André Picard -- Public health and personal heuristics / Noni E. MacDonald