A War on Science? Rethinking Vaccine Hesitancy and Refusal
On 24 November 2020, we were joined by Assoc Prof Maya Goldenberg to discuss the implications of trust in relation to vaccine hesitancy and refusal.
Maya talked about the importance for the scientific community in being able to develop trust in order to combat the rise of the post-truth era. In doing so, she challenged the belief that it is a lack of knowledge which drives the public towards vaccine hesitancy. Instead, she argued that we should be placing more emphasis on the role of trust in shaping the public's perception of science. As Maya pointed out, the decision to trust in science is informed by a number of cognitive, social and emotional factors which are also informed by broader beliefs about the unreliableness of scientific practice itself. Maya also argued that the scientific community has generally, thus far, been unable to effectively respond to such public disagreement and debate.