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 article 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Middlebury College. sclosser@middlebury.edu.
authors.forename: Svea
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Closser
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Systems Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
authors.forename: Anat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.affiliation: Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California at San Francisco.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Justice
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Middlebury College.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Independent Consultant Corvallis, Oregon.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Omidian
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Bayero University.
authors.forename: Ismaila Zango
authors.initials: IZ
authors.lastname: Mohammed
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Bayero University.
authors.forename: Aminu Mohammed
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dukku
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Koon
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, National University of Rwanda.
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nyirazinyoye
mesh_terms: D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D014943:Global Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control; D011055:Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral; D000072758:Vaccination Refusal / Q000208:ethnology*
chemical_list: D011055:Poliovirus Vaccine, Oral
keywords: comparative ethnography; eradication; vaccines