Multilayered Politicized Constructions of Covid-19 Vaccines: A Global South View of Pfizer and Sinovac

Abstract

Despite their overwhelming public health benefits for pandemic response, Covid-19 vaccines have been subject to political controversy around the world. Multidisciplinary scholarship in the health and social sciences points to a wide range of factors that influence the public’s divided views of vaccines. But these factors have largely been considered in relative isolation from each other as independent influences on vaccine beliefs. In this paper, we propose a multilayered politico-psychological model of collective constructions of the Covid-19 vaccines. Borrowing from Montiel and Christie’s (2007) theoretical framework, we examine how the Covid-19 vaccines are holistically constructed in relation to interdependent social meanings across micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level socio-ecological layers. Harnessing a mixed methods research design, we apply this framework to analyze a large corpus of Filipino tweets (N = 229,236) about the Pfizer and Sinovac vaccines. Micro-level discourses feature competing individual emotions which construct Pfizer as an object of desire and Sinovac as an object of fear. Meso-level constructions invoke collective contexts of information and resource scarcity within which Pfizer is a serendipitous prize while Sinovac is a mandated responsibility. Finally, macro-level constructions embed the Covid-19 vaccines within national and international structures, framing Pfizer as a symbol of political integrity and Sinovac as an instrument of political corruption for government leaders. In conclusion, these multilayered discourses around the Covid-19 vaccines illuminate complex negotiations of agency among a Global South public during the pandemic. We discuss multilevel interventions and politico-psychological implications for public health campaigns more broadly.

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