Covid Discourses, Populist and Academic

This chapter reflects on the implications of previous health messaging around vaccination and inoculation for the roll-out of the vaccination programme tackling the Covid-19/coronavirus in the UK in 2020–2021. The chapter conducts a thematic analysis of reportage around vaccination and anti-vaccination in the UK press during this period. The chapter examines a range of key themes around the status of vaccination as an ‘icon of modernity’, the nature of hesitancy in a time of scarcity and the notion of citizen responsibilities to the state in the matter of health in understanding the case of COVID. The significance of contested representations around mask wearing and ‘sunflower’ lanyards is also discussed.