Is Vaccine Hesitancy Anti-Science?: A review of resistance in international and global health programmes
by
Professor Sanjoy Bhattacharya,
(Professor in the History of Medicine, Department of History
&
Director, Centre for Global Health Histories (CGHH), University of York, UK)
Date & Time: 15/07/2021, Thursday at 3.00 p.m (IST)
Abstract:
Drawing on detailed research into the implementation of smallpox control and eradication efforts at different levels of Indian administration, examining interactions between international and national officials and complex societal structures, this presentation asks who and what was sometimes resisted? Was it the vaccines, the vaccinator or those considered to be responsible for designing immunisation campaigns? What roles did on-field implementers play in creating specific narratives of resistance? How can we excavate a diversity of 'genuine' voices in order to better plan for the future?
About the Speaker:
Professor Sanjoy Bhattacharya is the Co-Director of the History Department’s Centre for Global Health Histories, Professor in the History of Medicine, a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator and the Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories at the University of York. He specialises in the health, medical, political and social history of nineteenth and twentieth century South Asia, as well as the history and contemporary workings of international and global health organisations, and their programmes around the world. He has worked in inter-disciplinary ways and within inter-sectoral settings, and remains actively involved in health policy research and evaluation work in national and international agencies. He is a co-founder of the World Health Organization’s Global Health Histories project (GHH), which works across the WHO HQ in Geneva, WHO Regional Offices in Copenhagen and Cairo, and multiple WHO Country Offices. Professor Bhattacharya is the editor of the journal Medical History, a world leading publication in its field, published by Cambridge University Press. He is committed to helping the development of history teaching aids for schools and has been a consultant to a BAFTA award winning web-based module on the history of smallpox prepared by Timelines TV.