The Polyvocality of Online COVID-19 Vaccine Narratives that Invoke Medical Racism

Vaccine hesitancy has always been a public health concern, and anti-vaccine campaigns that proliferate disinformation have gained traction across the US in the last 25 years. The demographics of resistance are varied, with health, religious, and, increasingly, political concerns cited as reasons. With the COVID-19 pandemic igniting the fastest development of vaccines to date, mis- and disinformation about them have become inflammatory, with campaigning allegedly including racial targeting. Through a primarily qualitative investigation, this study inductively examines a large online vaccine discussion space that invokes references to the unethical Tuskegee Syphilis Study to understand how tactics of racial targeting of Black Americans might appear publicly. We find that such targeting is entangled with a genuine discussion about medical racism and vaccine hesitancy. Across 12 distinct voices that address race, medical racism, and vaccines, we discuss how mis- and disinformation sit alongside accurate information in a "polyvocal"space. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Introduction: medicine's shadowside: revisiting clinical iatrogenesis.

Drawing on the work of Ivan Illich, our special issue reanimates iatrogenesis as a vital concept for the social sciences of medicine. It calls for medicine to expand its engagement of the injustices that unfold from clinical processes, practices, and protocols into patient lifeworlds and subjectivities beyond the clinic. The capacious view of iatrogenesis revealed by this special issue collection affords fuller and more heterogeneous insights on iatrogenesis that does not limit it to medical explanations alone, nor locate harm in singular points in time. These papers attend to iatrogenesis' immediate and lingering presences in socialities and structures within and beyond medicine, and the ways it reflects or reproduces the racism, sexism, and ableism built into medical logics.

The complexities of race and health.

It is widely accepted that race and related social factors largely underpin patients' access to healthcare, and even have a direct impact on patients' care. The reality that racism is the source of these health inequalities, and that racism within health organisations compounds the issue, undeniably means that racism is a public health issue. The ongoing pandemic has not only shone a light on underlying issues that have silently plagued the Black, Asian and minority ethnic community but has helped us understand the devastating impact of racism. Closing the gap in these populations is required to ensuring equitable access. This article aims to highlight how racism impacts people of colour within the healthcare system and beyond and calls for dismantling of the structural racism that exists within the NHS and other UK organisations.