This section introduces the main research methods medical sociologists use to gather data about health, illness, and health care.

The researcher must carefully plan how to test the hypothesis, including deciding who to study, how to choose participants, and what type of data to collect.

This explains that research begins with theory, which leads to hypotheses. Hypotheses are specific predictions that can be tested using data, making them central to the scientific research process.

This sentence explains that academic fields are not fixed. While they are grounded in core ideas, they continue to evolve as new social problems and research questions emerge.

Support from major research institutions demonstrates that medical sociology was viewed as valuable and credible. This funding helped integrate sociological research into medical and mental health studies.

This highlights that disease is not evenly distributed across society. Sociologists study how factors like race, class, gender, and age influence who becomes sick and who has access to care.

This sentence defines medical sociology. It explains that the field uses sociological theories and methods to study health and disease rather than viewing them as purely medical or biological issues.

The author emphasizes that vaccine skepticism follows clear social patterns. Factors like income, education level, and living in rural areas influence whether someone believes vaccines are unsafe, showing how inequality affects health beliefs.

This section explains that people often try to understand health outcomes by looking only at personal choices or medical conditions. While these factors matter, the author argues that focusing only on individuals ignores the broader social forces that shape those experiences.

True death toll is much higher than official counts.

Includes healthcare overload + people avoiding care.

Death numbers underestimate the real impact.