Understanding the Impact of (Anti-)Racism on Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation Decision-Making

ABSTRACT

This article uses critical discourse analysis to interrogate Covid-19 vaccine allocation frameworks created by Johns Hopkins and the National Academies to understand how the authors of these frameworks conceptualized the problem of vaccine hesitancy among people of colour. This article argues these frameworks represent an institutional discourse about vaccine-hesitant racialized people that casts people of colour as mistrustful, conspiracy-prone and unwilling to engage with public health efforts and that this stereotyping undermined the anti-racist potential of these frameworks to address vaccine hesitancy among racialized people by failing to consider how vaccine hesitancy in people of colour can be an attempt to mitigate the untrustworthy nature of US public health institutions. There will undoubtedly be another situation in the future where there are not enough critical health resources for all, and priorities will have to be set. Public health officials need to learn from the Covid-19 experience and will need a far better understanding of the issue of vaccine hesitancy among people of colour.