Abstract
The search for an effective solution to control the COVID-19 pandemic has mobilized an unprecedented effort by science to develop a vaccine against the disease, in which pharmaceutical companies and scientific institutions from several countries participate. The world closely monitors research in this area, especially through media coverage, which plays a key role in the dissemination of trustful information and in the public’s understanding of science and health. On the other hand, anti-vaccine movements dispute space in this communication environment, which raises concerns of the authorities regarding the willingness of the population to get vaccinated. In this exploratory study, we used computer-assisted content analysis techniques, with WordStat software, to identify the most addressed terms, semantic clusters, actors, institutions, and countries in the texts and titles of 716 articles on the COVID-19 vaccine, published by The New York Times (US), The Guardian (United Kingdom), and Folha de São Paulo (Brazil), from January to October 2020. We sought to analyze similarities and differences of countries that stood out by the science denialism stance of their government leaders, reflecting on the severity of the pandemic in these places. Our results indicate that each newspaper emphasized the potential vaccines developed by laboratories in their countries or that have established partnerships with national institutions, but with a more politicized approach in Brazil and a little more technical-scientific approach in the United States and the United Kingdom. In external issues, the newspapers characterized the search for the discovery of a vaccine as a race in which nations and blocs historically marked by economic, political, and ideological disputes are competing, such as the United States, Europe, China, and Russia. The results lead us to reflect on the responsibility of the media to not only inform correctly but also not to create stigmas related to the origin of the vaccine and combat misinformation.
Highlights
Vaccines are important achievements for public health for controlling or eradicating diseases and for reducing health care costs and inequalities between countries (Andre et al, 2008)
Folha de São Paulo, which produced the largest number of articles in comparison with the other two, is characterized by smaller texts, with an average of 699 words, which represents just over half of that registered in the US newspaper
The results suggest that the coverage focus of the three newspapers seems to have left other issues in the background, as shown by the little presence of WHO and the limited discussion of social justice in accessing the COVID-19 vaccine by countries. This exploratory study allowed us to identify the general characteristics of the coverage of three important newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil on the development of a vaccine against COVID-19, contributing to the understanding of the relationship between communication and science in a public health emergency
Summary
Vaccines are important achievements for public health for controlling or eradicating diseases and for reducing health care costs and inequalities between countries (Andre et al, 2008). The authors identified 24 studies published between 2007 and 2017, mostly focused on the HPV vaccine They identified the predominance of articles from North America (United States and Canada) and the preference for analyzing print media (newspapers and magazines). Another study of 250 internet articles on the HPV vaccine concluded that comprehensive information about the immunizer, the viral infection, and its relationship with cervical cancer was limited (Habel et al, 2009). Such results show that these issues must be properly addressed, when there is a major health crisis
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