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.