The vaccination debate in the “post‐truth” era: social media as sites of multi‐layered reflexivity

Abstract

This paper analyses the contemporary public debate about vaccination, and medical knowledge more broadly, in the context of social media. The study is focused on the massive online debate prompted by the Facebook status of the digital celebrity Mark Zuckerberg, who posted a picture of his two‐month‐old daughter, accompanied by a comment: ’Doctor's visit – time for vaccines!’ Carrying out a qualitative analysis on a sample of 650 comments and replies, selected through systematic random sampling from an initial pool of over 10,000 user contributions, and utilising open and axial coding, we empirically inform the theoretical discussion around the concept of the reflexive patient and introduce the notion of multi‐layered reflexivity. We argue that the reflexive debate surrounding this primarily medical problem is influenced by both biomedical and social scientific knowledge. Lay actors therefore discuss not only vaccination, but also its political and economic aspects as well as the post‐truth information context of the debate. We stress that the reflexivity of social actors related to the post‐truth era re‐enters and influences the debate more than ever. Furthermore, we suggest that the interconnection of different layers of reflexivity can either reinforce certainty or deepen the ambiguity and uncertainty of reflexive agents.

Anticipating hopes, fears and expectations towards COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative interview study in seven European countries

“…This binarization of vaccine stances has been criticised in previous studies as well as a constructed social divide ( Blume, 2006 ). Instead, the intricate relationship between individual, communal and societal considerations further challenges predominant notions of vaccine hesitancy: at least in the context of COVID-19, our participants are in part driven by their preconceptions of vaccination, which reflects the polarised nature of vaccination practices more generally ( Numerato et al, 2019 ).…”

The Social Bifurcation of Reality: Symmetrical Construction of Knowledge in Science-Trusting and Science-Distrusting Discourses

“…As regards cultural dispositions and social structures , studies point to historical changes accounting for the rise of science distrust through new sources of legitimacy, from neoliberal capitalism ( Reich, 2014 ; Sanders and Burnett, 2019 ), a rise in relevance of conspiracy thinking as a defense of individualism ( Melley, 2002 ), and the creation of the “informed patient” ( Kata, 2010 ) asking for individualized treatment ( Ciocănel, 2016 ), to the evolution of the online environment in which anti-vaccine accounts are densely interlinked ( Kata, 2012 ; Numerato et al, 2019 ; Johnson et al, 2020 ). The internet and, particularly, the Web 2.0 have boosted the diversity, visibility, and circulation of vaccine hesitancy and of science-contrarian messages, in general.…”

Understanding and managing uncertainty in health care: revisiting and advancing sociological contributions

“…Within the context of social media and debates about vaccination in a post‐truth era, the reflexivity of social actors intersects with certainty and uncertainty (Numerato et al . 2019). Timmermans and Buchbinder (2010) introduce the concept of ‘patients‐in‐waiting’ confined to a state of diagnostic uncertainty about genetic disease, while Skinner et al .…”