Olivia Medical Anthropology

In the more recent months of the Covid-19 vaccine being released into society, people tended to be hesitant and resist getting the vaccine. This was due to a lack of information on what the vaccine could possibly bring for the future, whether that be short-term or long-term. Now, many individuals have chosen to get the vaccine because without it a restraint can be put on what you can and cannot do, depending on where you’re located. We see a lack of trust and hesitance present in a similar circumstance. The measles vaccination, being a perfect illustration of another instance where a handful of individuals lacked vaccinations. Certain minorities did not get this vaccine and public health officials honed in on the decision-making behind it. This occurrence called upon public health services to better reach minority audiences, and to be more assuring and understanding of why this hesitance might be occurring. We see public health officials resembling similar behavior with Covid, in an attempt to push for vaccinations worldwide.

“The purpose of this anthropological commentary is to demonstrate how public (health) bias in messaging regarding self-protective or ‘hard to reach’ minorities can be avoided by better understanding their processes of vaccine decision-making to address hesitancy.”

Ben Kasstan (2021) Vaccines and vitriol: an anthropological commentary on vaccine hesitancy, decision-making and interventionism among religious minorities, Anthropology & Medicine, 28:4, 411-419, DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2020.1825618