Playing Russian roulette with their kids: Experts' construction of ignorance in the California and Ohio measles outbreaks.

Abstract

Vaccination has become a site of professional and social concern, particularly as parents choose not to vaccinate their children. Previous research in medical sociology has considered the role of parents, knowledge, and health beliefs within vaccination debates. Yet, what has been overlooked is the expert construction of ignorance that emerges in conflicts over vaccination. This construction crystallizes in news media coverage of public health crises created by un- or under-vaccinated populations. Drawing on the sociology of science and the social problems tradition, this article performs a comparative case analysis to reveal that experts' status as privileged knowers affords them the capacity to frame ignorance itself. Using a content analysis of two measles outbreaks-one in California at Disneyland and the second among the Amish in Ohio-I show how experts do not simply traffic in objective, knowledge-based claims. Rather, they incorporate moral valences into these claims, which become apparent through their assessments of ignorance. Experts in the news shape the epistemic contours of the debate, calling out Californians as willfully ignorant, while excusing the Amish as unintentionally ignorant. This framing of ignorance is underpinned by the moral culpability of each population and its tractability to policy intervention. More broadly, this study reveals how expertise can be linked with and even supported by assessments of the causes and motivations of ignorance.