A Dialogue about Vaccine Side Effects: Understanding Difficult Pandemic Experiences

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the experiences of mass vaccinations against two pandemic viruses: the swine flu in 2009–2010 and COVID-19 in the early 2020s. We show how distressing memories from the swine flu vaccination, which led to the rare but severe adverse effect of narcolepsy in approximately 500 children in Sweden, were triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The narcolepsy illness story has rarely been told in academic contexts; therefore, we will provide space for this story. It is presented through a dialogue with the aim of shedding light on the interrelationship between pandemics—and between mass vaccinations—to investigate what could be termed cultural wounds that influence societies because they are characterized by the difficulty of talking about them. The paper explores the multiple shocks of illness in life and what can be learned from them by sharing them.