Abstract
The comparative study of negative attitudes toward vaccines in Italy and Spain allows reflecting on the relationships between science, politics, and the media in a populist context that challenges the legitimacy of health policies. Analyzing the similarities and differences in health and socio-political variables (government and public opinion), it is observed that although Italy and Spain have similar levels of vaccine hesitancy, in Italy this hesitancy has been transformed into collective mobilization. The institutional political context and compulsory vaccination can explain these differences. Nevertheless, the coincidence in both countries of the Manichean discourses between the anti-vax movements and the far-right populist parties (on the signifiers truth, trust, and freedom) as well as the non-organic link between both organizations is product of a general crisis of legitimacy of institutions. In the current social crisis, the conflict between technocracy and populism exacerbates the problems of trust in science and expert knowledge.
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Notes
- 1.
The correlation was debunked in subsequent articles and the article was later retreated. Wakefield was accused of manipulating the data and of being in an obvious conflict of interest, as he was funded by a law firm engaged in lawsuits against the state by alleged victims of vaccine damage. Nevertheless, the argument will continue to find wide support, and Wakefield will be seen by anti-vaxxers as a victim of a system that obstructs and censors those who tell the truth “against the system”.
- 2.
Doctors and lawyers also play an important role in Portugal; see chapter “Knowledge, Counter-Knowledge, Pseudo-Science in Populism”.
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Raffini, L., Penalva-Verdú, C. (2022). The Problematic Relationship Between Science, Politics and Public Opinion in Late Modernity: The Case of the Anti-Vax Movement in Spain and Italy. In: Eslen–Ziya, H., Giorgi, A. (eds) Populism and Science in Europe . Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97535-7_7
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