ABSTRACT
In order to respond better to vaccine mistrust, healthcare professionals on the frontlines of immunisation must learn to be just as dexterous in their narrative abilities as are the vaccine-sceptical groups. Healthcare professionals need to recognise the narrative conventions of anti-vaccination stories, so that they can be alert to the figurative fears that may be informing the vaccine-hesitant opinions. If healthcare professionals can develop both a richer understanding of the generic conventions of chaos narratives and an ability to ‘close read’ the nuances of each individual narrative, it will be possible for them to better understand the deeper, more amorphous anxieties that underwrite resistance to vaccine science. For healthcare providers fighting the dangerous scepticism of vaccine-resistant communities, understanding how a fear of chaos and loss may be fuelling or motivating parents can help shape more targeted responses to these narratives.
