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Abstract Panel


Authors Information
SequenceTypeName TitleFirst NameLast NameDepartmentInstitute / Affiliation
1 Author Prof. Melissa Parker Global Health and Development London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
2 Author Prof. Tim Allen Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa London School of Economics & Political Science
Abstract Information
TrackID
:
IUAES23_ABS_K5455
Abstract Theme
:
P036 - Covid-19 vaccines creating (Un)certainty and anxiety in Africa: theorizing Global and local Health policy for disease containment
Abstract Title
:
COVID-19 vaccination programmes, public authority and enforcement in Uganda
Short Abstract
:
Little is known about what happens when governments require citizens to be vaccinated against their will. Drawing on long term ethnographic fieldwork, this presentation analyses the way in which past political histories and contemporary socio-political dynamics influenced the roll out of the enforced COVID-19 vaccination programme in two contrasting places: Dei, north-western Uganda and Gulu, northern Uganda. These findings are used to reflect, more broadly, on the use of enforcement measures to protect the publics’ health.
Long Abstract
:

Remarkably little is known about what happens when governments require citizens to be vaccinated against their will. This presentation draws on long term ethnographic research in Dei, north-western Uganda and Gulu, northern Uganda to analyse the socio-political dynamics influencing the way in which the COVID-19 vaccination programme was enforced during 2021 and 2022. Using a public authority lens, we ask why it was possible to achieve a high vaccine coverage rate (84%) in Dei, and why the coverage was so much lower in Gulu (48%). Emphasis is given to demonstrating how past political histories and contemporary socio-political dynamics shaped the national vaccination programme in completely different ways in these two places. These findings are also used to reflect, more broadly, on the merits (or otherwise) of using enforcement measures for the purposes of protecting the publics’ health.
Abstract Keywords
:
COVID-19 vaccines, public authority, enforcement