Disease as a Site of Trust and Control in Vaccine Trials

• In Event: STS & Africa - I: Bodies and Biomedicine

Abstract

Vaccine trials take place in a milieu of trust where scientist, regulating institutions and volunteers trust each other to play their expected roles. This milieu of trust emerges from the linkages which are forged based on the vaccine trials and the interactions which take place thereof. Using a botched vaccine trial in Hohoe, Ghana, we explore this milieu of trust employing the concept of tandems of trust and control (Bijker, Sauerwein and Bijker, 2016) with a particular focus on the characteristics of disease and the linkages formed. We use qualitative interviews collected in Hohoe during the largest Ebola outbreak (2014-2016) to argue that the trust control nexus in vaccine trials occurs before the implementation of the vaccine trials, and both the characteristics of disease and the political context affect the linkages which are formed between scientists, regulating institutions and volunteers.

Authors

• John Kojo Aggrey, Louisiana State University

• Wesley Shrum, Louisiana State University