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Vaccine hesitancy is more a factor of public trust in institutions and less a problem of scientific literacy says Maya Goldenberg, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph and author of the book Vaccine Hesitancy Public Trust, Expertise and the War on Science.
For most people who ask questions about vaccines, the distrust of stems from a crisis of trust rather than a crisis of understanding.
This means that people are generally not distrustful of science itself, but distrustful of the scientific arrangements that bring vaccines, of the corporate power interests that can benefit.
“It’s important to enter discussions with your friends or with people you know who are vaccine hesitant with the assumption that is reasonable for people to have questions and to ask questions about major healthcare decisions, especially when they involve new technologies. It is unkind and inappropriate to assume that anyone who raises questions is part of some massive conspiracy.”