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In this book scholars from across the globe investigate changes in ‘society’ and ‘nation’ over time through the lens of immunisation. Such an analysis unmasks the idea of vaccination as a simple health technology and makes visible the social and political complexities in which vaccination programmes are embedded. The collection of essays gives a comparative overview of immunisation at different times in widely different parts of the world and under different types of political regime. Core themes in the chapters include immunisation as an element of state formation; citizens’ articulation of seeing (or not seeing) their needs incorporated into public health practice; allegations that development aid is inappropriately steering third-world health policies; and an ideological shift that treats vaccines as marketable and profitable commodities rather than as essential tools of public health. Throughout, the authors explore relationships among vaccination, vaccine-making, and the discourses and debates on citizenship and nationhood that have accompanied mass vaccination campaigns. The thoughtful investigations of vaccination in relation to state power, concepts of national identify (and sense of solidarity) and individual citizens’ sense of obligation to self and others are completed by an afterword by eminent historian of vaccination William Muraskin. Reflecting on the well-funded global initiatives which do not correspond to the needs of poor countries, Muraskin asserts that an elite fraternity of self-selected global health leaders has undermined the United Nations system of collective health policy determination by launching global disease eradication and immunisation programmes over the last twenty years.
10 Pandemic flus and vaccination policies in Sweden Britta Lundgren and Martin Holmberg Introduction During the summer of 2010, unexpected reports of narcolepsy in Swedish children and adolescents after vaccination with the pandemic influenza vaccine Pandemrix came to the attention of the Medical Products Agency (MPA). The main features of this condition are
11 Polio vaccination, political authority and the Nigerian state Elisha P. Renne So I told him [a soldier] that even if they are going to kill me, I will not allow the governor to enter my house … I also said in the governor's presence that even if President Jonathan comes here, I will not allow them to immunize my child. So the governor
feasible to perform a reasonably sterile operation by protecting the hands with frequent dips in a solution of one percent cationic soap.’ They expressed their hope ‘to encourage others to search for … a detergent which will deposit a film with greater resistance to solution in water’. 36 Attempts at the systemic prevention of surgical infection Vaccination served as the model for a very different approach to dealing with wound infection. It followed ‘the idea of strengthening and supporting the organism in its struggle against potential infections prophylactically
3 Vaccination and the communist state: polio in Eastern Europe Dora Vargha In December 1959, Hungary introduced into its national immunisation programme the Sabin vaccine, the live poliovirus vaccine that has been the tool of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since 1988. This campaign put Hungary in the front line of polio vaccination with live virus vaccines along with the Soviet
unacceptable. In the end, a trial of the new Merck vaccine in Guinea produced compelling results using a new experimental ring-vaccination strategy. By recruiting those at highest risk of infection, it balanced both ‘robust science and humanitarian demands’ ( Kelly, 2018 : 151). Although effective, the Merck vaccine did have potential weaknesses compared to other vaccines in development: the stringent cold-chain requirements and the fact it was only effective
are iteratively adapted to the needs of a given community. For example, feedback collected during a community discussion concerning an upcoming vaccination campaign – after being anonymised, uploaded and triaged – can inform MSF as to how to best implement the campaign. The data in the platform conforms with GDPR regulations. MSF Listen was first deployed as a pilot project in September 2020 in three distinct MSF contexts: a tuberculosis programme in Tajikistan, a maternal
had also requested to be involved in community ‘health promotion’ and vaccination activities, but this had been refused by the direction of the taskforce. According to one MSF staff member, ‘the WHO said they didn’t want partners to spread themselves too thinly, but really they didn’t want us to be seen as taking the lead’. MSF quickly decided that the Mangina health centre was unsuitable for Ebola care, so began constructing a
they say, ‘Oh, that’s fine,’ but that is surgery . It is a conceptual thing. But safe surgery can have an impact on a community as great, for example, as a vaccination programme. So, you might think, ‘That can’t be right: vaccination programmes are as cheap as chips and you can get them out to lots of people’ – yes, but your target audiences are not economically active, so this may sound very consequentialist or whatever, but that’s the fact; they are not the most
aspiration of vaccination is remote. Some may be lucky and get some of the crumbs from the COVAX Facility, aimed at providing access to COVID-19 vaccines to all those in need, but vaccine nationalism has become the norm. What would really be needed, that is, to abolish patent rights and allow generic production of all effective vaccines ( Acharya and Reddy, 2020 ), is unlikely to happen. If the COVID-19 pandemic is not the time to treat vaccine formula as a public good, it never will come