Victor Perez, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UD, joined us for a discussion of public health issues. Perez researches how scientific, medical, and public health information is communicated with the public.

In this discussion, we talked about the rhetoric of the “vaccine critical” community–how they get their anti-vaccine message out, how they reinforce that message with each other, the reasons why so many educated people are part of that community–in spite of overwhelming evidence that most vaccinations are a win for public health. Perez posits that the opposition is shaped by, among other factors, political viewpoints opposed to big government.

But Perez didn’t stop there. He also talked about creationism, diet fads, coconut water, handshakes, and fist bumps. A fascinating discussion of a variety of public health issues and how they play out in the media.

Listen to the Interview

Victor Perez, Sociology
29:58
28.8 MB

About our guest

Victor Perez joined UD’s faculty as an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice after receiving his PhD at the University of Delaware.

He specializes in the sociology of risk, medical sociology, social problems, and survey research. A unifying theme throughout his career is the entwined configuration of health, risk, and society. Currently, his research projects involve a survey of vaccine risk perception, exploring citizen-science alliances dealing with legacy pollution and sea-level rise, and studying how the popular media presents the issue of cancer clusters. He regularly teaches quantitative sociological research methods, social statistics and data analysis, and Honors introduction to sociology. Recently, he became a faculty affiliate of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) and is starting new lines of research on legacy pollution in impoverished areas, water sustainability, and other environmental justice issues. In Fall 2014, he is teaching a new Sociology course about the environment and environmental organizations.

This is his second appearance on Campus Voices. He joined us on Nov. 13, 2013, to discuss the use of “cancer clusters” as a rhetorical device.

Learn more

• UD Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice
• Professor Victor Perez
• Links to information Prof. Perez referred to in our discussion:
  • Immunization sites:
    • National Network for Immunization Information: Evaluating information on the Web, National Network for Immunization Information website (US Govt. site), 2010.
    • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Vaccine information statements; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (US Govt. site); last reviewed Jun 13, 2014; last updated Aug 19, 2014.
    • National Vaccine Information Center: National Vaccine Information Center: Your health. Your family. Your choice., 2014.
    • Phil Plait: The littlest victims of anti-science rhetoric, Bad Astronomy (Slate), Jul 29, 2014.
    • Paul Offit, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Let’s not talk about sex [and HPV vaccine], NY Times, Aug 19, 2014.
    • Anna Kata: A postmodern Pandora’s box: Anti-vaccination misinformation on the Internet, McMaster University, Dec 2012.
  • Science Skeptics:
    • Nature editorial board: Science scorned:
      The anti-science strain pervading the right wing in the United States is the last thing the country needs in a time of economic challenge., Nature, Vol 467, Issue no. 7312, Sep 9, 2010.
    • Jessica Streeter: Science skeptics, Contexts, Fall 2012.
    • Gordon Gauchat, University of North Carolina: Politicization of science in the public sphere: a study of public trust in the United States, 1974 to 2010, American Sociological Review, April 2012.
  • Fist bumps and handshakes:
    • Michaeleen Doucleff: Fist bumps pass along fewer germs than handshakes, Goats and Soda (NPR), Jul 29, 2014.
  • Diet fads:
    • James Hamblin, Katherine Wells, Paul Rosenfeld: Juice Cleanses: The Worst Diet, The Atlantic, Aug 21, 2014.
    • Robert Glatter: The truth behind the coconut water craze, Forbes, Aug 31, 2012.
    • Eliza Barclay: Can a diet clean out toxins in the body?, The Salt (NPR), Feb 15, 2012.

Photo of Victor Perez by Sarah Tompkins