Anti/Vax

L. Hausman Bernice

Description

Antivaxxers are crazy. That is the perception we all gain from the media, the internet, celebrities, and beyond, writes Bernice Hausman in Anti/Vax, but we need to open our eyes and ears so that we can all have a better conversation about vaccine skepticism and its implications.Hausman argues that the heated debate about vaccinations and whether to get them or not is most often fueled by accusations and vilifications rather than careful attention to the real concerns of many Americans. She wants to set the record straight about vaccine skepticism and show how the issues and ideas that motivate it-like suspicion of pharmaceutical companies or the belief that some illness is necessary to good health-are commonplace in our society.Through Anti/Vax, Hausman wants to engage public health officials, the media, and each of us in a public dialogue about the relation of individual bodily autonomy to the state's responsibility to safeguard citizens' health. We need to know more about the position of each side in this important stand-off so that public decisions are made through understanding rather than stereotyped perceptions of scientifically illiterate antivaxxers or faceless bureaucrats. Hausman reveals that vaccine skepticism is, in part, a critique of medicalization and a warning about the dangers of modern medicine rather than a glib and gullible reaction to scaremongering and misunderstanding.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Medical sociology
• Health

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501735639
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Anti/Vax

avolumeintheseries

TheCultureandPoliticsofHealthCareWork EditedbySuzanneGordonandSiobanNelson

Foralistofbooksintheseries,visitourwebsiteatcornellpress.cornell.edu.

Anti/Vax

ReframingtheVaccination Controversy

BerniceL.Hausman

ILRPress animprintof CornellUniversityPress Ithaca and London

Copyright©2019byCornellUniversity Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. Firstpublished2019byCornellUniversityPress PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData

Names: Hausman, Bernice L., author. Title: Anti/vax : reframing the vaccine controversy / Bernice L. Hausman. Description: Ithaca, New York : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2019. | Series: The culture and politics of health care work | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiers: LCCN 2018052013 (print) | LCCN 2018052991 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501735639 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501735646 (ret) | ISBN 9781501735622 | ISBN 9781501735622 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Anti-vaccination movementUnited States. | VaccinationSocial aspectsUnited States. | Vaccination of childrenSocial aspectsUnited States. Classication: LCC RA638 (ebook) | LCC RA638 .H38 2019 (print) | DDC 614.4/7083dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052013

InmemoryofRoseGomezHausman

Contents

PrefaceandAcknowledgmentsix

Introduction:VaccinationStoriesandWhyIWroteThisBook

1. So What Bothers You about Vaccines?16

 2. Immune to Reason36

 3. Whom Do You Trust?49

 4. Being a Responsible Parent67

 5. Is Vaccine Refusal a Form of Science Denial?87

 6. What Are Facts, and How Do We Trust Them?110

 7. Medicalization and Biomedicalization131

 8. Antimedicine in Theory and Practice153

9. Viral Imaginations175

10.Anti/Vax194

1

vi i i

Contents

Conclusion:WhatVaccinationControversyCanTeachUs about Medicine and Modernity211

Notes221

Bibliography245

Index265

PrefaceandAcknowledgments

WhileIwasworkingonthisbook,oneofmybrotherstookill.We were together for a family vacation on Long Island during Labor Day weekend. He had been hiking in California a few weeks earlier, had a low fever and rash, and seemed to recover. Once on the East Coast, he became very sick: lethargic, nauseated, and feverish. He had the chills and shook violently at times. By the time we took him to the emergency room at a local hospital, he was dehydrated and quite wobbly. Wehavelittleexperiencewithseriousillnessinmyfamily.Mybrothers illnessundiagnosed initially despite a full tick panel and tests for other infectious diseaseswas a startling and illuminating experience for some- one writing about vaccination controversy. My brother thought for sure he had West Nile virus disease (and later tests proved him right), as he had encountered unusually large numbers of mosquitoes during his camp- ing trip, but the infectious disease doctors at the hospital didnt think so. Were they just oriented toward ticks because the problem on Long Island is Lyme disease? At dinner one night while he was still in the hospital,