COVID-19 epidemic and vaccination process: Politics, strategies, and communication

The public relations campaigns of the vaccines produced and marketed in different countries to prevent the risk of transmission of Covid-19, which is shown as the biggest global pandemic of the era, and to eliminate the pandemic situation are important issues that deserve academic scrutiny. The possible side effects of vaccines according to the age and health status of individuals, and the doubts caused by the fact that they have not been tried before, disinformation and misinformation spread through communication tools on the subject have also caused fear and panic in the society. In this study, communication activities and strategies during the vaccination process in the Covid-19 pandemic were examined. During the pandemic, the SINOVAC vaccine was first developed and started to be administered to citizens. Subsequently, BIONTECH and TURKOVAC vaccines were also introduced to the market and the practices continued. Vaccination became a topic that occupied the agenda for a long time and different information was provided to the public through various media channels. Vaccination studies with various discourses have become another important issue discussed after the pandemic. While one group supported vaccination, other groups emerged that opposed vaccination and refused to be vaccinated. In the thesis study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 health personnel working in different districts of Ankara province, who have different specializations in the field of health, have taken an active role in the vaccination and pandemic process, and were asked semi-structured questions. MaxQda software was used for categorization and visualization of the collected data. In addition, the X accounts (Twitter) of 5 different NGOs serving in the field of health were examined and their one-year posts between January 13, 2021 and January 13, 2022, when vaccination practices started in Turkey, were obtained and analyzed with the NODEXL program. The main problematic of the study is the dissemination of vaccination studies to the public and the reasons for individuals to vaccinate or not to vaccinate.