Vaccines discourse : A diachronic case study

Since the pandemic, vaccinations have become an issue that has triggered much
public debate. Although several scholars have focused on the discourse of social
media and traditional news media, parliamentary discourse on this issue has
received little attention. Using the Hansard Corpus of speeches collected from the
House of Commons between 1803 and 2005, and a recent corpus of speeches on
Covid-19, we examine how vaccines have been presented in British Parliament over
the years. Taking into account the main peaks in which the word vaccine occurs and
observing frequency, collocates, and phraseology, we trace significant differences in
discourse on vaccines, reflecting changing values and differences in the respective
arguments of science and political power. While in the early 19th century the focus
was on the vaccine itself, starting from the 1950s’ attention was more on research and
investment. The turn of the century witnesses negative attitudes towards vaccines,
while the pandemic shows an increasing need for promotional discourse.