Beyond the Jab: Vaccines, Publics, and the State

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Dialogue

Abstract

Vaccines are stories about trust, memory, power, and the ways in which science meets state and society. This article asks a simple but often overlooked question: what happens when public health policies stop listening? It does so by tracing the histories of three major vaccination efforts in India—smallpox, BCG, and polio. For decades, vaccination in India has been driven by a technocratic logic that hides fractured relationships. This logic labels resistance as irrational, buries uncertainty under slogans, and treats publics as passive or misguided. This paper looks beyond the charts to show how words like “efficacy” and “hesitancy” are not, and have never been, neutral. Drawing on scholarship from Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS) and medical humanities, it argues that Indian vaccine policy must do more than communicate. It must converse and recognise publics not as obstacles but as reasoning actors with histories, doubts, and demands. It must also invest in the disciplines that help us make sense of those complexities. Going beyond the jab means asking better questions, embracing ambiguity, and building health systems that aim for listening and care.

DOI

10.29195/DSSS.09.01.124

Publication Date

5-5-2026

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