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Short abstract:

Vaccine hesitancy, a multifaceted issue from mild doubts to outright refusal, is eradicated from the public discourses by media polarization and healthcare sidelining. Amplified by the pandemic, it risks morphing into broader distrust of vaccination and science.

Long abstract:

Vaccine hesitancy is often portrayed as a major global problem, addressed by researchers and policy-makers alike. This incredibly complex phenomenon (McDonald 2015) encompasses a plethora of attitudes (from mild doubt to outright refusal) and (in)actions towards vaccines (from vaccinating despite uncertainty, to delaying, to refusing), which need to be addressed. Otherwise, vaccine hesitancy can lead to escalation of fears and radicalisation of attitudes, especially when questions unaddressed in mainstream discourses (also scientific) find their easily digestible answers (online and offline). The media shapes vaccination discourses by disciplining and polarising discussions. In those polarised mainstream and social media, vaccine hesitancy becomes invisible. Additionally, it is sidelined in everyday immunisation practices, with

healthcare professionals only marginally addressing concerns about vaccines. These existing questions and fears (mainly about side effects) were amplified and fuelled (with fears of the unknown and the new) by the pandemic and rapid introduction of Covid-19 vaccines.

Given these complementary tendencies, we suggest that vaccine hesitancy may increasingly evolve into distrust of vaccines and vaccination, but also of science, so eagerly deployed in polarising discourses and, for many, embodied by vaccines. This could lead to a decline in vaccine uptake, a trend already observed in recent years.

The findings are based on extensive qualitative and quantitative research conducted in Poland before and after the pandemic. It included mainstream and social media analysis, interviews with healthcare professionals and hesitant parents, and ethnographic research. More general conclusions are drawn about possible future scenarios for vaccine hesitancy and vaccine mistrust.