Zika vaccine: development, assemblages, and sociotechnical controversies

Abstract

The theoretical essay discusses the controversies about the zika vaccine development, highlighting negotiations which involve technical-scientific choices and the effects of defining the Vaccine Target Product Profile (TPP) for use only in the emergency scenario. Three perspectives of analysis are presented aligned with the Social Studies of Science: the flows of normative establishment provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), the narratives published in specialized journals and the discuss of a group of interviewees. We conclude that the definition terms of TPP supported the establishment of the WHO ontological policy, implying in exposure, accountability and culpability of women for the prevention of Congenital Zika Syndrome; definition of certain vaccination strategies; making other possible scenarios invisible; greater acceptance of certain platforms; widening global inequalities. Such an ontological policy engendered a potent emergency rationality that distinguished the vaccine from the social need for vaccination, pushing the second one towards invisibility.