The anti-vaccination Robinsons – Isolated actors of the mainstream vaccination discourse in Poland

Abstract

Vaccinations are treated as a tool that can eliminate disease or at least reduce morbidity and mortality. The programmes implemented by the World Health Organization aim to completely eradicate certain infectious diseases. At the same time, the number of people who choose not to vaccinate, or question the effectiveness and necessity of vaccination, is increasing. Called as anti-vaccinationists, they are treated by the dominant discourse as irrational, selfish and irresponsible. In this article, we analyse the media discourse around vaccination, pointing out that the institutionalised message supports the vaccination policy, while displacing and ridiculing actors who are opposed to the current vaccination procedure. Labelled as one type of group and pushed out of the dominant discourse, they organise themselves in their spaces and practise their coping strategies. We call them ‘the Robinsons’ (inspired by Robinson Crusoe) because, locked in their islands, they close themselves off from the current discourse, forming their own knowledge and their own practices. Our aim is to show the discursive mechanisms of pushing out them of the mainland.