Though several web forums circulate memes, we chose Reddit because it is a prominent space in the attention economy and a convenient site for access to debates over vaccination leading up to Covid-19. As such, this article explores responses to vaccine scepticism in online visual culture through a focus on pre-Covid-19 memes emerging on Reddit, a social news website and content aggregator, which grew in popularity during roughly the same time period as vaccine scepticism in the early decades of the 21 st Century (Panek, 2022, p. This tension has led to a symbolic struggle between anti-vaccine (anti-vaxx) and pro-vaccine (pro-vaxx) sentiment through a variety of creative visual and discursive practices.īy situating current struggles as part of a longer trajectory, more nuanced tactics can be deployed to navigate the shifting symbolic terrain of vaccine scepticism. Vaccine scepticism occurs in diverse populations, from white libertarians to people of colour, new immigrant populations, and those who have lived in the United States for generations, and stronger levels are linked with a distrust of authorities (King, Rubinstein, Reinhart, & Mejia, 2021 Nguyen et al., 2021). Yet, despite compelling reasons to vaccinate oneself and their children, a minority of the population is hesitant, while others remain vehemently opposed. Those who choose not to vaccinate can also become ill and spread diseases to others. In the United States, 1–3% of individuals cannot receive standard vaccinations for health reasons (Stein, 2017), and must rely on herd immunity, or sufficient population resistance to diseases.

In addition to safeguarding medical systems from becoming overwhelmed with potential outbreaks, widespread vaccinations are important for those who are vulnerable to disease, such as older populations, infants, and those with compromised autoimmune conditions. 1 Despite scientific evidence that vaccines are rarely harmful, growing global scepticism led the World Health Organization (WHO) to prioritize vaccine hesitancy as an issue that demanded global attention in 2019. There is a long history of opposition to vaccinations (Lau, 2016), and in more recent years, this has led to the re-emergence of communicable diseases. As resistance to vaccine mandates has led to global demonstrations amongst small but vocal and disruptive groups two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, it is clear there are formidable rhetorical and symbolic challenges in countering anti-vaccine sentiment (Scott, 2022).

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