Vaccine hesitancy and refusal : attitudes and motivations in neoliberal societies: a literature review and new classification, Health and illness in the neoliberal era

Most of the literature has classified the phenomenon of vaccine resistance with the category of “hesitancy”, a third position between “pro-vax” and “no-vax”. The paper questions both this category, as well as, the dichotomy between “pro-vax” and “no-vax”, because not enough phenomenological and sociological oriented. In fact, they are rooted in the medical standard view, where (simplifying) vaccinations are “good” and rejections are “bad”. The sociological approach (as social studies of science thought) should step away from any partisan position, opting for an autonomous view. According to it the paper shows that the category “hesitancy” doesn’t fully account for the complexity of the vaccine criticism, because too grounded on a specific social actor only (the parents), leaving apart a multitude of other actors, including scientists. In addition, the dichotomization of the phenomenon squeezes other (according to us) seven positions, which cannot be trivially reduced to the hesitational one.