Negotiating Knowledge through an Ecosystem of Vaccine Development and Deployment for (Re)Emergent Diseases

• In Event: Global Vaccine Logics: New Trends in an Old Assemblage

Abstract

The 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak presented a unique opportunity for the testing of new vaccine candidates as clinical trials were rapidly set up across the region and beyond. This paper explores this concept of ‘opportunity’ by focusing on the ‘ecosystem’ of actors and forms of knowledge involved in vaccine development and deployment. Far from simple considerations around supply and demand, we consider how particular events, such as the Ebola epidemic, come to be seen as moments of both crisis and opportunity. This paper presents preliminary findings from a multi-sited study exploring vaccine development and deployment for (re)emergent infections. Through ethnographic work across six case studies (Uganda, India, Brazil, Sierra Leone, DRC, and a rapid deployment case), the study looks at different dimensions of vaccine development and deployment during emergencies: political and economic factors, health systems perspectives, vaccine confidence and one health. In this paper we bring together preliminary insights to explore the context and historical specific negotiations for vaccine knowledge, across an assemblage of actors and social relations, political economies and sociocultural realities. In particular, we focus on how such knowledge travels and transforms between pharmaceutical companies, humanitarian and research institutions down to local health systems and communities. The ultimate aim is to contribute to a discussion of the ecosystem of practices that contribute to shaping vaccine science in public health emergencies for (re)emergent diseases.

Authors

• Shelley Lees, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

• Luisa Enria, University of Bath