Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine
224 pages, 6 x 9
2 illustrations
Paperback
Release Date:02 Jan 2018
ISBN:9780813587776
Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine
Selling HPV and Cervical Cancer
Rutgers University Press
In Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine, medical anthropologist S.D. Gottlieb explores how the vaccine Gardasil—developed against the most common sexually-transmitted infection, human papillomavirus (HPV)—was marketed primarily as a cervical cancer vaccine. Gardasil quickly became implicated in two pre-existing debates—about adolescent sexuality and pediatric vaccinations more generally.
Prior to its market debut, Gardasil seemed to offer female empowerment, touting protection against HPV and its potential for cervical cancer. Gottlieb questions the marketing pitch’s vaunted promise and asks why vaccine marketing unnecessarily gendered the vaccine’s utility, undermining Gardasil’s benefit for men and women alike. This book demonstrates why in the ten years since Gardasil’s U.S. launch its low rates of public acceptance have their origins in the early days of the vaccine dissemination. Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine addresses the on-going expansion in U.S. healthcare of patients-as-consumers and the ubiquitous, and sometimes insidious, health marketing of large pharma.
Prior to its market debut, Gardasil seemed to offer female empowerment, touting protection against HPV and its potential for cervical cancer. Gottlieb questions the marketing pitch’s vaunted promise and asks why vaccine marketing unnecessarily gendered the vaccine’s utility, undermining Gardasil’s benefit for men and women alike. This book demonstrates why in the ten years since Gardasil’s U.S. launch its low rates of public acceptance have their origins in the early days of the vaccine dissemination. Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine addresses the on-going expansion in U.S. healthcare of patients-as-consumers and the ubiquitous, and sometimes insidious, health marketing of large pharma.
Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine offers an intimate examination of HPV vaccine narratives, traced through public media, clinics, conferences, and public policy debates. In an era of commodified health care, such explorations are necessary to lay bare the motivations of health interventions as a public good only after corporate interests are served. Despite their potential good, inappropriate promotions of new technologies may minimize or even ignore the health inequities they aim to address.
This exciting book analyzes the cultural struggles over the vaccine Gardasil as both a source of corporate profit and an icon in the moral imagination of patients, doctors and health activists. Gottlieb expertly blends anthropology, media studies and feminist critique to illuminate how ‘disease threats’ are defined in our era of corporate medicine and polarized politics.’
ReachMD 'Primary Care Today' interview with Samantha Gottlieb
Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine offers an intimate examination of HPV vaccine narratives, traced through public media, clinics, conferences, and public policy debates. In an era of commodified health care, such explorations are necessary to lay bare the motivations of health interventions as a public good only after corporate interests are served. Despite their potential good, inappropriate promotions of new technologies may minimize or even ignore the health inequities they aim to address.
This exciting book analyzes the cultural struggles over the vaccine Gardasil as both a source of corporate profit and an icon in the moral imagination of patients, doctors and health activists. Gottlieb expertly blends anthropology, media studies and feminist critique to illuminate how ‘disease threats’ are defined in our era of corporate medicine and polarized politics.’
ReachMD 'Primary Care Today' interview with Samantha Gottlieb
S.D. GOTTLIEB is a medical anthropologist. She has taught in the department of anthropology, geography and environmental sciences at California State University, East Bay, and was a visiting scholar in the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society at the University of California-Berkeley.
1 Introduction 1
2 Imminent Vulnerability and Commodified Empowerment 20
3 The Pap Smear, Racist Histories, and “Cervix” Cancer 36
4 Educate the Educators 54
5 Merck and the FDA 70
6 Vaccines and Politics 83
7 Complicity with Corporations 99
8 Mothers and Gardasil 116
9 The “Tragically Underused” Vaccine 136
Acknowledgments 145
Notes 149
Bibliography 177
Index 193
2 Imminent Vulnerability and Commodified Empowerment 20
3 The Pap Smear, Racist Histories, and “Cervix” Cancer 36
4 Educate the Educators 54
5 Merck and the FDA 70
6 Vaccines and Politics 83
7 Complicity with Corporations 99
8 Mothers and Gardasil 116
9 The “Tragically Underused” Vaccine 136
Acknowledgments 145
Notes 149
Bibliography 177
Index 193
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