About the Chair

The CIHR Applied Public Health Chair on Anthropology and Vaccine Hesitancy, INSPQ-ULaval is a research program developed through a partnership between the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) and the Université Laval. Starting in 2022, the Chair's mission over the next five years will be to study the individual, socio-cultural, structural and historical factors that influence the acceptance of vaccination in order to identify and evaluate intervention strategies that promote vaccination in an equitable, sustainable and effective manner.

Vaccination is considered one of the greatest public health achievements. Although its effectiveness has been proven, more and more people have significant fears and doubts about vaccines and may refuse or delay vaccination. This phenomenon, called vaccine hesitancy, is associated with outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination hesitancy is considered a health threat and is on the priority list of many organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Vaccination is also known to be a useful tool in reducing some health inequalities when equitably accessible. However, some groups facing systemic barriers (racism, sexism, discrimination) have lower vaccination rates, reflecting persistent inequalities in accessing the health system.

Specifically, the Chair's program is structured around two axes with the following objectives:

• To understand the expressions, causes and impacts of vaccine hesitancy in the population, particularly among equity-seeking groups;
• To develop and evaluate interventions to improve equitable access to services and reduce vaccine hesitancy.

The Chair's also aims to generate knowledge and contribute to the training of a new generation of social science researchers working in public health. Two other axes complement those mentioned above:

• To develop innovative knowledge transfer strategies to engage knowledge users, including equity-seeking groups;
• To enhance social science research capacity applied to public health in Canada.

Approach

The Chair's program relies primarily on qualitative methods, interdisciplinarity and action research projects that will be developed in partnership with the targeted communities (equity-seeking groups such as Aboriginal people, marginalized people and racialized people). The Chair will allow for a constructive dialogue between different stakeholders (researchers, public health experts, immunization policy and program managers, health professionals, community members) on the complex issues related to vaccine hesitancy.

Steering committee

• Kaouther Bessrour, Director, Office of the Chairs and Structuring partnerships - Vice-Rectorate, Research and Innovation, Laval University
• Sylvie Drapeau, Vice-Dean, Research - Faculty of Social Sciences, Laval University
• Martin Hébert, Chair - Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Laval University
• Patricia Hudson, Scientific Director - Direction des risques biologiques, Institut national de santé publique du Québec
• Holly Witteman, Associate Professor - Department of Family and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University

Scientific committee

• Nicholas Brousseau, Medical advisor and member of the Quebec Immunization Committee - Institut national de santé publique du Québec
• Scott Halperin, Nominated Principal Investigator - Canadian Immunization Research Network
• Yves Jalbert, Deputy Director-General, Public Health Protection - Ministry of Health and Social Services
• Brigitte Paquette, Head - Unité Immunisation, Institut national de santé publique du Québec
• Manish Sadarangani, Director, Vaccine Evaluation Center - BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia
• Chantal Sauvageau,Medical advisor and member of the Quebec Immunization Committee - Institut national de santé publique du Québec