The medical establishment often dismisses skepticism of vaccines and treatments as irrational fear. But, as Katherine Furman argues, it can sometimes be rational to trust your friends and neighbours over distant experts – for example, in cases when one lacks information about the aims and values of those experts. Instead of manipulating people into compliance or emphasising the authority of expertise, the real solution lies in bringing scientists and medics closer to the communities they serve.
1. Trusting friends and neighbours
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