Maya J. Goldenberg

Vaccine Hesitancy

Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science

By Maya J. Goldenberg
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021

Vaccine Hesitancy is a refreshing reconsideration of how we frame and might reframe public debate about vaccines and vaccination. Maya Goldenberg’s argument—that at the foundation of today’s vaccine controversies is a public mistrust of science, not a public misunderstanding of science—offers an important point of view in the larger contemporary debate about vaccine hesitancy. Her book is original and compelling, providing a unique perspective on a topic in urgent need of more critical scholarly attention.

— Elena Conis, author of Vaccine Nation: America’s Changing Relationship with Immunization

More Praise

In 2019, The World Health Organization declared vaccine hesitancy one of the top ten global health threats. How should the phenomenon be understood? Vaccine Hesitancy is a timely response to this pressing issue. Lucidly written, rigorously argued, and comprehensive in scope, Maya Goldenberg’s book demonstrates the value of philosophical analysis to contemporary debates. It deserves a wide audience and is essential reading for anyone engaged in public health and medicine. In light of COVID-19, this would include all of us.

— Ross Upshur, University of Toronto

Centering much of her discussion on the vital issue of trust—indeed, on a ‘crisis of trust’ in current social structures and medical practices, and on the fragile status of expertise, even of ‘facts’—Maya Goldenberg argues convincingly for a ‘dialogical’ understanding of trust. This is a concept and a practice for which cooperation becomes a fundamental epistemic value, and epistemic responsibility is a guiding principle.

— Lorraine Code, York University