Hobson-West Pru
School of Sociology and Social Policy, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Front Vet Sci. 2022 Jun 9;9:868933. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.868933. eCollection 2022.
Critique of vaccination policy and practice has a long history, and social scientists and others have devoted significant efforts to understanding this phenomenon. This attention has only increased in light of the coronavirus pandemic, with public health concerns expressed about opposition to vaccination strategies. However, much less attention has thus far been devoted to understanding veterinary vaccine critique. This is problematic, given the central role of animals in the production and consumption of vaccines, and the existence of veterinary professional anxiety and international media coverage. The lack of existing literature may reflect a wider paucity of research on the veterinary profession; a paucity actively being challenged by new fields of veterinary anthropology and sociology. This short report is based on a discourse analysis of a UK campaign group, which questions aspects of companion animal vaccine policy. Findings suggest that the kinds of discourses used are similar to those made in the human vaccine domain: questions of risk, trust in expertise and imaginaries of science are thus not unique to human medicine. However, the article argues that some of the discourses identified are actually in line with wider social and cultural developments in healthcare. This argument has potential implications for veterinary professionals, as well as scholars interested in animal or human medicine. The article concludes by identifying future research trajectories, focused on further analysis of discursive practice, or the use of ethnographic observation to more fully understand the relationship between humans and non-humans, including animals and vaccine technologies.
对疫苗接种政策与实践的批判由来已久，社会科学家及其他人士为理解这一现象付出了巨大努力。鉴于新冠疫情，这种关注更是有增无减，公众对疫苗接种策略的反对引发了公共卫生方面的担忧。然而，迄今为止，对于理解兽医疫苗批判的关注却少得多。考虑到动物在疫苗生产与消费中的核心作用，以及兽医专业人员的焦虑情绪和国际媒体报道的存在，这一情况存在问题。现有文献的匮乏可能反映出对兽医行业研究的普遍不足；兽医人类学和社会学等新领域正在积极挑战这种不足。本简短报告基于对英国一个活动组织的话语分析，该组织对伴侣动物疫苗政策的某些方面提出质疑。研究结果表明，所使用的话语类型与人类疫苗领域的类似：因此，风险问题、对专业知识的信任以及科学想象并非人类医学所独有。然而，本文认为，所识别出的一些话语实际上与医疗保健领域更广泛的社会和文化发展相一致。这一观点对兽医专业人员以及对动物或人类医学感兴趣的学者都有潜在影响。本文最后确定了未来的研究方向，重点是对话语实践进行进一步分析，或运用人种志观察来更全面地理解人类与非人类之间的关系，包括动物与疫苗技术之间的关系。
