Title & Institution: Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, National Cheng Kung                  University

Email: y1357@mail.ncku.edu.tw

Topic in NCKU Research Week: Addressing vaccine hesitancy: Looking beyond safety concerns and public communication

Abstract:

Information conflicts coupled with dynamic changes in the environment and society, highlight the un-decidability of the conclusions, which may bring to a stalemate in public debate. Understanding the relationship between decision making, multiple vaccination interpretations and cognitive processes, not only establish the philosophical foundations to integrate knowledge of scientific authority and lay people, but also help to rebuild trust, and promote particularly national vaccination policies.
Currently, we take STS (Science, Technology and Society) strategy acknowledging the legitimacy of lay knowledge and advocating citizen science to explore the structure and context of reasoning in scientific controversy of vaccine hesitation. Questions as following will be discussed: What is the rhetoric used by government, pharmaceutical companies, and media? What is the discussion of mixed true and false evidence and cognitive preferences? How confidence in science is built or destroyed? Specifically, we discuss here the case of Collins/Pinchs’ hesitation about vaccination.

Personal Profile: Medical history, Epistemology, STS, Immunology

Website link to personal research profile:  http://myweb.ncku.edu.tw/~y1357/yang.html