Black Mothers and Vaccine Refusal: Gendered Racism, Healthcare, and the State

Abstract

Vaccine refusal has increasingly been the focus of public health concern. Rates of children who are up to date on vaccines have declined in recent years, and vaccine refusal has been implicated in disease outbreaks. Most research on children who are not fully immunized identifies white affluent mothers as most likely to opt out by choice and Black mothers as more likely to face structural barriers that limit access to vaccines for their children. In this paper, we analyze social media posts and online discussions among Black mothers to better understand their concerns about vaccines. Unlike white women who reject vaccines as a personal choice, Black mothers express unique concerns about the role of the state in their lives. Specifically, some Black mothers using social media view vaccines as a white technology and claim that white women have greater freedom in opting out of vaccines without the same risks to their families. They describe efforts to strategize interactions with pediatricians and other healthcare providers who can report them to social service agencies or block access to welfare and nutritional benefits for their families if they refuse vaccines. Black women’s experiences with structural gendered racism in interactions with healthcare and education systems shape vaccine decisions and should be taken seriously.

“It made me feel like a shit parent”: an intersectional analysis of pandemic mothering

“…For these young Māori mothers, recalling their pregnancies during lockdowns and vaccination restrictions, evoked strong feelings of loss, grief and even anger toward the government. Herein our findings align with Thornton and Reich's ( 2022 ) research on Black mothers and vaccine refusal in the US, highlighting how structural gendered racism and concerns about state intervention shaped vaccine decisions.…”

Understanding Low Vaccine Uptake in the Context of Public Health in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

“…The success of vaccination uptake depends on the trustworthiness of the organizations offering the vaccine [ 111 ]. The least trusted included the government [ 60 , 63 , 64 , 67 , 75 , 92 ] particularly the federal government and the president [ 27 ], partly due to the politicization of the vaccine and its development [ 97 ], the conflicting guidance from the federal, state, and local governments, the government’s approach to healthcare [ 94 ], political meddling [ 62 ] as well as organizations that produce [ 67 , 78 ], market, and distribute vaccines, such as pharmaceutical companies [ 60 , 78 ], physicians [ 75 ] and healthcare providers [ 60 ], the healthcare system [ 63 , 92 , 93 ] and the medical community [ 92 ] which have contributed to varying degrees of VH from lowering confidence to unwillingness to resistance [ 67 , 75 , 92 ].…”

“…Willis et al [ 85 ] reported that COVID-19 VH was 2.61× higher in those that reported discrimination by police or the courts, indicating a potential link between racial discrimination in the criminal justice system and VH in Black adults. Furthermore, Thorton & Reich [ 64 ] found that Black mothers experienced racial and bias and perceived rejection of vaccines as a form of resistance against governmental power. They also considered homeschooling as a legally acceptable way to avoid vaccinating their children since they were concerned about vaccines and the organizations that promoted them [ 64 ].…”

Decentering intensive mothering: More fully accounting for race and class in motherhood norms

“…These predominantly White mothers are networked with other similarly positioned, like-minded mothers, who exchange information with one another and validate each other as being good mothers in the face of criticism (Reich, 2020). It is worth noting that vaccine refusal is less common among Black mothers, and while Black mothers may express concern about vaccine ingredients those who refuse vaccines are more motivated by a desire to resist state intervention in their families (Thornton & Reich, 2022).…”