Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/94156
Title: Challenging modernity? COVID-19, sorcery, religion and vaccines in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Connell, John
Keywords: COVID-19 (Disease) -- Papua New Guinea -- Prevention
States, Small -- Politics and government -- Papua New Guinea
COVID-19 (Disease) -- Social aspects -- Papua New Guinea
Social distancing (Public health) and education -- Papua New Guinea
COVID-19 (Disease) -- Government policy
Issue Date: 2022-05
Publisher: University of Malta. Islands and Small States Institute
Citation: Connell, J. (2022). Challenging modernity? COVID-19, sorcery, religion and vaccines in Papua New Guinea. Small States & Territories, 5(1), 121-140.
Abstract: Papua New Guinea (PNG) avoided the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 by closing its borders but case numbers soared early in 2021 with the arrival of the Delta variant. That exerted unusual pressure on a poorly functioning and underfunded health care system. Mobility was constrained bringing a reluctance to visit hospitals other than as a last resort. Local food markets closed, and ‘traditional’ practices such as bartering and subsistence agriculture and fishing expanded. Vaccine hesitancy was substantial, through disbelief that this was a ‘local’ disease, widespread distrust of government and resort to social media. Rising case numbers and deaths raised doubts over both supposedly curative western biomedicine, and the utility of prayer, and invoked the spectres of sorcery and ‘stranger danger’, underpinned by conspiracy theories. Cultural and socio-economic issues restricted the adoption of a niupela pasin (new way) involving social distancing, mask wearing and vaccination. Inadequate health services, co-morbidity and shortages of various supplies and of skilled health workers accentuated social problems as the virus continued to spread along familiar transport routes. The value of ‘modern’ approaches was overshadowed by ‘traditional’ values and practices and by ineffective access to and management of resources in this small archipelagic state.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/94156
Appears in Collections:SST Vol. 5, No. 1, May 2022
SST Vol. 5, No. 1, May 2022

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