About the Author

Stuart Blume is Emeritus Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Educated at Oxford University, he has previously worked at the University of Sussex, the London School of Economics and in Whitehall.

Reviews

"Immunization provides great insight into the vaccination issue precisely because it avoids the easy generalizations made by partisans on either side. Blume more usefully points to the complexities and contradictions in the history and social dynamics of vaccination. He presents vaccination as a technology, and as just one of several approaches to promoting health, and thus to be judged in a wider context than a narrow calculation of benefits and risks. Immunization is essential reading for anyone who wants to get beyond the usual polarized positions in the vaccination debate."--Brian Martin, University of Wollongong, Australia

"Blume's Immunization is a clearly written, brilliant, and highly sophisticated look at the roots of the growing phenomenon of 'vaccine hesitancy.' He rejects the dominant, and superficial interpretation by public health officials of what is going on, and shows the reader what insights occur when you really stop and listen to what people are saying rather than assuming you already know what motivates them and pigeon-holing their supposed views into various unflattering categories."--William Muraskin, Queens College, City University of New York

"From vaccine hesitancy to virulent anti-vaccine views, parents are questioning what used to be considered a triumph of public health--vaccines. As so often happens with debates on controversial issues, emotion often trumps information. . . . [Immunization] offer[s] refreshingly fact-based alternatives to the vitriol dominating the current conversation on vaccines. . . . From Cold War politics to neoliberal economics, Blume puts policy and advancement into a broader context in which public health sometimes takes a back seat to other, less noble concerns. His central argument, articulated in the final chapter, is that vaccine hesitancy is rooted in mistrust of the institutions that promote them--especially governments and pharmaceutical companies. . . . Readers who wish to be informed of the current debate and issues surrounding it will appreciate the clear, fact-based approach."-- "Library Journal"