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Taking vaccine regret and hesitancy seriously. The role of truth, conspiracy theories, gender relations and trust in the HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland

ABSTRACT This paper considers the dual approach to conspiracy theories in anthropological studies. While some anthropologists suggest treating them seriously because they might reveal some truths, others argue that conspiracy theories require serious attention, because they are alarming and present a threat to social cohesion and democracy. Analysing conflicts over HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland, this paper investigates if there is a way of bridging this divide. In contrast to most studies on vaccine hesitancy, this paper avoids reducing the issue to the problem of knowledge deficiency. Instead, it takes a holistic approach: rather than seeing medical conspiracy theorising as a problem of singular groups, it examines it as a relational issue that connects and disconnects different stakeholders, including medical professionals, families, and health administrators.