Abstract
Vaccine hesitancy has been proven to be a major obstacle in the fight against communicable diseases. My research is an ethnographic exploration of a group of public health professionals who are tasked with safeguarding the health of South African populations against the spread of communicable diseases. My study is relatively nascent in the South African context, as many studies of vaccine hesitancy have focused on ‘studying down’ parents, caregivers and sometimes healthcare workers. While important, these studies have left important gaps in understanding the multifaceted phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy, particularly in relation to the role of institutions and public health agencies. My ethnography contributes to this identified gap. Based on six months of fieldwork, centred at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), I tracked public health professionals from the NICD and Department of Health (DoH) as they carried out a Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) outbreak investigation. I argue that the public health response to this outbreak is a reflection of the current understandings, meanings and operationalisations of vaccine hesitancy expressed by the NICD and other stakeholders. I draw on interviews, observations and participant observation to show that public health professionals, despite their expertise in disease outbreaks, are governed and guided by uncertainty represented by gaps in their knowledge...
M.A. (Anthropology and Development Studies)