Authors:
Leach, Melissa, MacGregor, Hayley, Akello, Grace, Babawo, Lawrence, Baluku, Moses, Desclaux, Alice, Grant, Catherine, Kamara, Foday, Nyakoi, Marion, Parker, Melissa, Richards, Paul, Mokuwa Esther, Okello, Bob, Sams, Kelley, Sow, Khoudia
Corporate Author:
Social Science & Medicine
Published:
2022

This study used a ‘vaccine anxieties’ framework to consider the socially-embedded reasons why people want or do not want Covid-19 vaccines, and how this intersects with the dynamics of vaccine supply, access and distribution in rapidly-unfolding epidemic situations. Whereas discourses of vaccine hesitancy misrepresent African publics as ignorant or confused, the authors argue that Covid-19 vaccine anxieties make sense given disease, social and political experiences. While growing familiarity with Covid-19 vaccines have eroded some concerns, vaccine preparedness must nevertheless address health system structures and politics.