‘This Vaccine is Not for Us’: Christianity, Colonialism, Conspiracies, and COVID-19 Vaccine Beliefs in Papua New Guinea

Vaccine hesitancy is considered a growing problem worldwide. In Papua New Guinea, the vaccine for the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was met with extraordinary fear and antipathy, resulting in one of the world’s lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccination. Not only were there concerns about the vaccine’s safety, it was also perceived as a grave threat to sovereignty and religious faith. We draw on 131 qualitative interviews with health service clients, healthcare workers, community leaders, and stakeholders to explore how the colonial legacies of medicine and Christianity converged with global conspiracies to shape locally resonant beliefs and opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine. Eschewing a deficit approach, we argue for the importance of seeking to understand the contexts into which biomedical interventions are introduced and made sense of, particularly in neocolonial settings; it is critical to the ability to respond to future pandemics in attuned and effective ways.