Abstract
The contribution focuses on the pro-vax vs anti-vax debate around children’s mandatory vaccinations in Italy, a country where a populist government has used anti-vax arguments in order to generate consensus and consolidate its political power. A thematic analysis compares the main themes emerging from the comments to an online newspaper article published on Facebook about an anti-vax rally held in Italy in 2019 (organised by antivaxxers to protest against a new immunisation regime introduced in 2017) and those emerging from the main rhetoric used by populist political representatives in dealing with the topic of children’s immunisation (as retrieved from public interviews and newspaper articles). This chapter suggests that the distrust of experts heralded by populist parties and movements also supports and fuels the arguments used by laypeople to oppose official immunisation practices. It will be argued that the de-legitimising of experts is one the most troublesome traits of populist rhetoric, causing negative effects in society, especially in terms of decreasing immunisation levels and limiting popular awareness about fundamental facts about individual and general healthcare.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Medical Misinformation and Social Harm in Non-Science Based Health Practices |
| Subtitle of host publication | A Multidisciplinary Perspective |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Oct 2019 |