Celine Romina Sulit

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A Real Time Ethnography: Vaccination Storm Before and After

Background and Significance of the Study:

Recently, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed a measles outbreak has claimed lives, 55
of which are children in the Philippines and many are affected by what should have been a
disease long ago eradicated, now claiming lives even those of children. Many attributes the
outbreak due to the recent vaccination scare by members of Pres. Duterte’s circle. And according
to Persida Acosta, the main reason this outbreak occurred is due to the lack of care that parents
take when vaccinating. If one recalls, her campaign against vaccination, specifically Dengvaxia,
is what most people point to when discussing the reason for the measles outbreak. In light of the
issue, this paper will dive into the internet, the place of information dissemination to try and
explore the current mindset of those mostly affected by this, particularly middle-aged adults
with children of their own, in understanding how this issue of health may be given solution,
taking into account the perceptions of these adults on vaccinating their children at an early age
after the consolidation of all these health issues?

Problem Statement:
What are the perceptions of parents with infant children or children aged 1-5 years on
vaccinating their children at this early age after this recent measles outbreak?

Objectives:
To explore the perceptions of parents regarding child vaccination before and after the measles
outbreak

To describe the factors that allow the parents to decide against or for child vaccination?

To discuss the perceptions of the parents on the causation how the measles outbreak came to be.

To discuss the risks and causes that characterize parents’ behaviors on child vaccination.

Conceptual Framework:

For this paper, the researcher will be borrowing Hechter and Kanazawa’s model for rational
choice theory which states that rational choice and behaviors of an individual is a multi leveled
concept, where the first level considers the cognitive aspect from the macro society’s perspective
i.e social and collective phenomenon, and the micro level, which emphasize the individuals
cognitive capacities given the first existing first level, i.e the situation, information and
generalizations formed from a series of repeated event with similar circumstances. In relation,
Serquina-Ramiro’s regulated personal control model will be used to explain further how
research on health decisions are best investigated how individual decisions are best looked at
Celine Romina Sulit
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
from the perspectives of those who undergo these processes, rather than overlook them as mere
rebellious whims.

Figure 1: According to Hechter and Kanazawa (1997) and

Coleman 1990)
Methodology:
This paper will be an online ethnography where the researcher will enter into one randomly
selected Facebook group where there are a population of parents involved. In order to stimulate
discussions, the researcher will be posting articles on the topic and allow the discussion to come
up naturally. The responses will be the noted. Eventually, the researcher will the conduct one
on one with a parent to get their full statements, sampling will be random and limited to 5
couples per one on one interview. Disregarding gender and civil status (i.e single, married,
divorced parents), there are certain characteristics that the parents must have. Such as recent
parents with infants or children within 1-5 years of age. The researcher will camp in the
Facebook group every day of the week checking at 5pm to 8pm in the evening to scan for post
engagements. This will be the paper’s primary data source. Secondary data will come review of
related literatures as well as comments from news articles with a related topic (i.e Rappler,
Inquirer, CNN Philippines, etc. ) The following are guide questions which the researcher will
be considering when posting articles and interviewing one on one.

1) What do you know about vaccines?

2) Where did you learn about vaccines?
3) What do you feel about being child vaccination?
4) What do you know about the recent measles outbreak?
5) What do you think caused the outbreak?
6) What did you feel about vaccinating yourself and your child/children before the measles
outbreak? What about after?

Review of Related Literature:

Vaccines, what are they and why they are feared:

The World Health Organization or WHO defines vaccines as, “a biological preparation that
improves immunity to a particular disease. The way that the vaccine works can be likened to
fighting fire with fire, an internal adaptation by the immune system. The vaccine is a weakened
form of a virus that when introduced to the body, the immune system will immediately react to,
Celine Romina Sulit
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
destroying the weak virus then remembering that such a virus exists so that the body may
recognize a stronger virus once it has intruded the body. Armed with previous knowledge of the
vaccine introduced virus, the body may react responsively to the dangerous foreign subject. The
first vaccine was first introduced during the time of the smallpox epidemic where one Edward
Jenner countered the small pox epidemic by first experimenting on a young boy how introducing
cowpox virus onto a scab caused by smallpox could immune the child against smallpox.
Eventually, Jenner would be known to be the founder of Vaccinology and the first vaccine for
smallpox was introduced.

Vaccination efforts continued, eventually eradicating completely any signs of smallpox.

However, the inherent characteristic of the vaccine as a “weakened virus”, an agent, though
weakened, that supposedly spreads diseases posed fears of the safety of the medical method and
in 1998, a research was conducted by Andrew Wakefield along with 12 other co authors that
the introduction of vaccines cause autism, or worsens the child’s conditions. After news on
conclusions came out, parents were almost quick to deny or delay vaccinations necessary for
children. Follow up studies revisited Wakefield’s findings and found that there was no concrete
evidence to tie vaccines as a cause for autism. The damage had been done however and to this
day, there are existing myths regarding vaccines, including that it causes autism, worsens the
individual’s condition, that decreased disease is done by simply taking care of oneself and that
vaccination is not worth the risk.

Vaccination in the Philippines

It is mandated in the Republic Act No. 10152 or the Mandatory Infants and Children Health
Immunization Act of 2011 Section 2 that it would be the state’s policy to spearhead preventive
health care of infants and children by adopting “a comprehensive, mandatory, and sustainable
immunization program for vaccine-preventable diseases for all infants and children.” The
mandatory immunization is free of charge and will be available at any government hospital or
health center and introduced to children five years of age. With regards to the institutionalization
of 4P’s, under the Senate Bill 2117, children ages 0-5 must receive regular health and nutrition
services including checkups AND vaccinations., otherwise beneficiaries will have their grants
cut off. From this, one can assume that the issue of vaccination is not new to the Philippines,
given that even the state itself has institutionalized the need for vaccination to be a medium
particularly with children, granting healthcare to those below the poverty line.

However, those within th