Childhood Vaccine Hesitancy as an Interaction-Based Phenomenon

Abstract

The paper discusses the role of the interaction between parents and healthcare professionals in overcoming or heightening childhood vaccine hesitancy. Childhood vaccine hesitancy is seen as a set of attitudes and behaviours—that is, dispositions—that are highly dependent on how trust and vulnerability intersect during vaccination appointments. Drawing on a rapid team ethnography conducted in the Northwest of Italy, we discuss how parents' trust in vaccination changes along specific trajectories, depending on how healthcare professionals manage epistemic conflicts with hesitant parents. We employ the concept of interactional trust to show how trust can be eroded or restored during specific interactions, regardless of the initial trust capital. Healthcare professionals' discursive and interactive strategies during inoculation can have long-term effects on parents' interpersonal trust and institutional trust in both immunisation and in the healthcare system. If parents and healthcare professionals fail to embrace their reciprocal vulnerability, the trust building system is flawed.