"Do we tolerate these people?" Discriminatory media discourses as public health and electoral politics strategy.


Hazel Lievonen, York University; Claudia Chaufan, York University

Since the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in December 2020, large groups of Canadians remained unvaccinated, which generated intense public debates over vaccination status. Overtime, the public and private sectors imposed wide restrictions on the Unvaccinated, who became stigmatized in the media and other social spaces. Drawing from medical research and critical policy and discourse studies, we discuss dominant narratives around the Unvaccinated in two leading Canadian newspapers of contrasting ideologies, focusing on election times. We present prelimintary findings of our investigation and offer recommendations for evidence-based and ethical practices in public health policy, especially in times of crises.

This paper will be presented at the following session: