title: The Global Context of Vaccine Refusal: Insights from a Systematic Comparative Ethnography of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
abstract: Many of medical anthropology's most pressing research questions require an understanding how infections, money and ideas move around the globe. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is a $9 billion project that has delivered 20 billion doses of oral polio vaccine in campaigns across the world. With its array of global activities, it cannot be comprehensively explored by the traditional anthropological method of research at one field site. This paper describes an ethnographic study of the GPEI, a collaborative effort between researchers at eight sites in seven countries. We developed a methodology grounded in nuanced understandings of local context but structured to allow analysis of global trends. Here, we examine polio vaccine acceptance and refusal to understand how global phenomena-in this case, policy decisions by donors and global health organizations to support vaccination campaigns rather than building health systems-shape local behavior. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
authors.affiliation: Middlebury College, Sociology/Anthropology, Middlebury, Vermont, USA. sclosser@middlebury.edu.
authors.forename: Svea
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Closser
authors.affiliation: Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Health Systems Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beer - Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Anat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.affiliation: Oregon State University, Anthropology, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.affiliation: University of California at San Francisco, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Justice
authors.affiliation: Middlebury College, Sociology/Anthropology, Middlebury, Vermont, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Independent Consultant, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Omidian
authors.affiliation: Bayero University, Department of Sociology, Kano, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Ismaila Zango
authors.initials: IZ
authors.lastname: Mohammed
authors.affiliation: Bayero University, Department of Sociology, Kano, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Aminu Mohammed
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dukku
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Global Health and Development, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Koon
authors.affiliation: National University of Rwanda School of Public Health, Kigali, Rwanda.
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nyirazinyoye