IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v272y2021ics0277953621000368.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Playing Russian roulette with their kids: Experts' construction of ignorance in the California and Ohio measles outbreaks

Author

Listed:
  • Kay Fullenkamp, Natalie

Abstract

Vaccination has become a site of professional and social concern, particularly as parents choose not to vaccinate their children. Previous research in medical sociology has considered the role of parents, knowledge, and health beliefs within vaccination debates. Yet, what has been overlooked is the expert construction of ignorance that emerges in conflicts over vaccination. This construction crystallizes in news media coverage of public health crises created by un- or under-vaccinated populations. Drawing on the sociology of science and the social problems tradition, this article performs a comparative case analysis to reveal that experts' status as privileged knowers affords them the capacity to frame ignorance itself. Using a content analysis of two measles outbreaks—one in California at Disneyland and the second among the Amish in Ohio—I show how experts do not simply traffic in objective, knowledge-based claims. Rather, they incorporate moral valences into these claims, which become apparent through their assessments of ignorance. Experts in the news shape the epistemic contours of the debate, calling out Californians as willfully ignorant, while excusing the Amish as unintentionally ignorant. This framing of ignorance is underpinned by the moral culpability of each population and its tractability to policy intervention. More broadly, this study reveals how expertise can be linked with and even supported by assessments of the causes and motivations of ignorance.

Suggested Citation

  • Kay Fullenkamp, Natalie, 2021. "Playing Russian roulette with their kids: Experts' construction of ignorance in the California and Ohio measles outbreaks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:272:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621000368
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113704
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621000368
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113704?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Poltorak, Mike & Leach, Melissa & Fairhead, James & Cassell, Jackie, 2005. "'MMR talk' and vaccination choices: An ethnographic study in Brighton," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 709-719, August.
    2. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226750248 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Stuart Allan & Alison Anderson & Alan Petersen, 2010. "Framing risk: nanotechnologies in the news," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 29-44, January.
    4. Blume, Stuart, 2006. "Anti-vaccination movements and their interpretations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 628-642, February.
    5. Attwell, Katie & Ward, Paul R. & Meyer, Samantha B. & Rokkas, Philippa J. & Leask, Julie, 2018. "“Do-it-yourself”: Vaccine rejection and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 106-114.
    6. Peretti-Watel, Patrick & Raude, Jocelyn & Sagaon-Teyssier, Luis & Constant, Aymery & Verger, Pierre & Beck, François, 2014. "Attitudes toward vaccination and the H1N1 vaccine: Poor people's unfounded fears or legitimate concerns of the elite?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 10-18.
    7. Armstrong, Elizabeth M., 1998. "Diagnosing moral disorder: the discovery and evolution of fetal alcohol syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(12), pages 2025-2042, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cory Anderson & Shuai Zhou & Guangqing Chi, 2023. "Population-Wide Vaccination Hesitancy among the Amish: A County-Level Study of COVID-19 Vaccine Adoption and Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-24, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Skea, Zoë C. & Entwistle, Vikki A. & Watt, Ian & Russell, Elizabeth, 2008. "'Avoiding harm to others' considerations in relation to parental measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination discussions - An analysis of an online chat forum," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1382-1390, November.
    2. Christophe Leveque & Haris Megzari, 2022. "Intensification or Diversification: Responses by Anti Health-Pass Entrepreneurs to French Government Announcements," Working Papers hal-03624964, HAL.
    3. Ohid Yaqub, 2018. "Variation in the dynamics and performance of industrial innovation: what can we learn from vaccines and HIV vaccines?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 173-187.
    4. Christophe LEVEQUE & Haris MEGZARI, 2022. "Intensification or Diversification: Responses by Anti Health-Pass Entrepreneurs to French Government Announcements," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2022-04, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    5. Ward, Jeremy K. & Gauna, Fatima & Deml, Michael J. & MacKendrick, Norah & Peretti-Watel, Patrick, 2023. "Diversity of attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and vaccines: A representative cross-sectional study in France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    6. Makarovs, Kirils & Achterberg, Peter, 2017. "Contextualizing educational differences in “vaccination uptake”: A thirty nation survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1-10.
    7. Ward, Jeremy K. & Cafiero, Florian & Fretigny, Raphael & Colgrove, James & Seror, Valérie, 2019. "France's citizen consultation on vaccination and the challenges of participatory democracy in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 73-80.
    8. Yaqub, Ohid & Castle-Clarke, Sophie & Sevdalis, Nick & Chataway, Joanna, 2014. "Attitudes to vaccination: A critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-11.
    9. Ward, Jeremy K., 2016. "Rethinking the antivaccine movement concept: A case study of public criticism of the swine flu vaccine’s safety in France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 48-57.
    10. Peretti-Watel, Patrick & Raude, Jocelyn & Sagaon-Teyssier, Luis & Constant, Aymery & Verger, Pierre & Beck, François, 2014. "Attitudes toward vaccination and the H1N1 vaccine: Poor people's unfounded fears or legitimate concerns of the elite?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 10-18.
    11. Yaqub, Ohid & Nightingale, Paul, 2012. "Vaccine innovation, translational research and the management of knowledge accumulation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2143-2150.
    12. Christophe Lévêque & Haris Megzari, 2023. "Intensification or diversification: responses by anti health-pass entrepreneurs to French government announcements," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 553-583, December.
    13. Ghada El Khoury & Pascale Salameh, 2015. "Influenza Vaccination: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices among the Lebanese Adult Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Theiss Bendixen, 2020. "How cultural evolution can inform the science of science communication—and vice versa," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Gordana Tkalec & Iva Rosanda Žigo & Žarka Dolinara, 2017. "Film Reception by Means of New Media or How the Film Escaped from the Cinema," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 3, January -.
    16. Manca, Terra, 2018. "Fear, rationality, and risky others: A qualitative analysis of physicians' and nurses' accounts of popular vaccine narratives," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 119-125.
    17. Jamison, Amelia M. & Quinn, Sandra Crouse & Freimuth, Vicki S., 2019. "“You don't trust a government vaccine”: Narratives of institutional trust and influenza vaccination among African American and white adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 87-94.
    18. Vulpe, Simona - Nicoleta & Rughinis, Cosima, 2021. "The alternative fact of “probable vaccine damage”: A typology of vaccination beliefs in 28 European countries," MPRA Paper 105647, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Lawrence C. Hamilton & Joel Hartter & Kei Saito, 2015. "Trust in Scientists on Climate Change and Vaccines," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(3), pages 21582440156, August.
    20. Valentine, Kylie, 2010. "A consideration of medicalisation: Choice, engagement and other responsibilities of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 950-957, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:272:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621000368. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.