COVID-19 VACCINES: THE POLISH INFORMATION SPACE. INTERIM REPORT NUMBER 5

Centrum Analiz Propagandy i Dezinformacji
Author: Centrum Analiz Propagandy i DezinformacjiEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space using the example of articles published by Onet.pl, Wp.pl, Interia.pl, Wpolityce.pl, Gazeta.pl in the period between 5-18 July 2021.

Below are presented the partial results of the monitoring conducted by the Center for Propaganda and Disinformation Analysis as a part of the “Covid-19 vaccines in Polish- and Russian-language online media outlets: specifics and correlation between them in Polish and Russian information spaces” project and implemented during the period of 10 May – 29 August 2021.

 
Source: Own elaboration, Center for Propaganda and Disinformation Analysis

Quantitative analysis:

Between 5-18 July 2021, the studied news sites published a total of 210 news on vaccines. It is necessary to subtract 25 results from this number, as they were wrongly included by the monitoring software mainly for two reasons: either due to the phrase "Sputnik" within the content, which in this context was the name of the Russian news agency and not a formulation, or there were included links to other articles with names of the vaccines in their titles. More on this in the Methodology section.

The largest number of publications on vaccines appeared on wpolityce.pl (54 news), followed by interia.pl (49), onet.pl (46) and wp.pl (34), and the least on gazeta.pl (27) .

Across all the websites, most attention was given to Pfizer (138), AstraZeneca (88), Moderna, and J&J (70 each). Slightly fewer publications concerned Sputnik (6), Sinovac (5), CoviVac (4), EpiVacCorona (2) and Sinopharm (1) formulations.

None of the monitored websites included any information regarding Chinese vaccines (CanSino, Convidecia, Vero), Indian Covaxin, German CureVac, American Novavax or Kazakh QazVac. 

The news focused more often on foreign affairs (103 messages) rather than the internal ones (82).

No anti-vaccine content was identified in the studied media. Those tagged with the “anti_vaccination” tag reported events connected with the movement skeptical of vaccines. Among them were, for example, the incident involving displaying a poster on the entrance door to the clinic in Szubin containing a "Hands off the children" slogan, the case of selling false vaccination certificates or the statement of the Children’s Ombudsman Mikołaj Pawlak during a session of the Sejm, during which he opposed children’s immunizations, calling them an "experiment".

As for the articles with the “pro_vaccination” tag, they were related to the nationwide vaccine lottery and statements of Polish scientists assuring the effectiveness of vaccines against severe cases of COVID-19.


Source: Own elaboration, Center for Propaganda and Disinformation Analysis

Main topics:

The topics that dominated in the studied media were the following: the delta variant of coronavirus (72 news), post-vaccine complications (31) and the fourth wave of infections (21). The introduction of booster shots (15 news), restrictions (12), conspiracies related to the coronavirus (9), covid passports (7), tests (4) and segregation resulting from vaccination policy (3) were less often covered.

The dominant themes were: 

- Debates over the safety of Pfizer vaccines for the health of patients, especially after the well-known case of the death of a man from Ukraine;

Selected articles:

Ukraina: Zmarł cztery godziny po szczepieniu. Pfizer: Nie ustalono związku, Interia Wydarzenia, 05.07.2021.
Firma Pfizer o śmierci 47-latka w Winnicy, Onet, 05.07.2021.
Współzałożyciel BioNTech przeciwny... obowiązkowi szczepień. „To może dać efekt odwrotny do zamierzonego. Potrzebna edukacja”, wPolityce.pl, 12.07.2021.

- New broken vaccination records in Poland;

Selected articles:

Mateusz Morawiecki: Wykonaliśmy już 30 milionów szczepień, Interia Wydarzenia, 05.07.2021.
- S. Bagińska, Koronawirus w Polsce. Najnowszy raport Ministerstwa Zdrowia [Piątek, 9 lipca], WP Wiadomości, 09.07.2021.
Już 31,6 mln szczepień w Polsce! Dwie dawki preparatu otrzymało ponad 15,2 mln osób. Ile szczepionek dostarczono? Co dalej?, wPolityce.pl, 14.07.2021.

- Consequences of the delta variant in Poland: risks of lower immunity despite vaccinations, new quarantine rules;

Selected articles:

- J. Zajchowska, Naukowcy: Ozdrowieńcy nie są odporni na wariant Delta koronawirusa, naturalne przeciwciała nie wystarczą, Gazeta.pl, 09.07.2021.
- A. Jastrzębski, Premier Izraela: szczepionka nie wystarczy na wariant Delta, WP Wiadomości, 17.07.2021.
Wariant Delta koronawirusa. Rzecznik MZ: Kwarantanna nawet dla zaszczepionych, Interia Wydarzenia, 05.07.2021.

- Plans of the Polish government regarding the sale of vaccines abroad;

Selected articles:

- K. Cieślik, Polska sprzeda szczepionki przeciw COVID-19. W tym tygodniu nawet cztery miliony dawek, Gazeta.pl, 13.07.2021.
- R. Opas, Koronawirus. Dworczyk zapowiada: Polska odsprzeda szczepionki innym krajom, WP Wiadomości, 14.07.2021.

- Introducing vaccination in Israel for adolescents without the required parental consent (J. Szwalikowska, Izrael. Nastolatkowie mogą szczepić się przeciw COVID-19, nawet jeśli jeden rodzic się nie zgodzi, Gazeta.pl, 09.07.2021);

- Side-effects of Pfizer, Moderna (J. Popławski, EMA dodaje kolejne powikłania poszczepienne. Chodzi o Pfizera i Modernę, WP Wiadomości, 09.07.2021), AstraZeneka and J&J (EMA odradza stosowanie szczepionki Janssen u chorych na zespół przesiąkania włośniczek, Interia Wydarzenia, 09.07.2021) formulations;

- Vaccine tourism in Malta (Malta zmienia zasady wjazdu. Niektóre szczepionki nieuznawane, Onet, 10.07.2021), France (J. Zaremba, Nowe restrykcje dla podróżujących z kilku krajów Europy, WP Wiadomości, 17.07.2021) and Greece (Grecja: pieniądze za szczepienie. Chcą ratować sezon turystyczny, Interia Wydarzenia, 07.07.2021);

- Denial of speculation regarding the possible emergence of a delta mutation due to vaccines (Czy szczepionki spowodowały mutację Delta? Sprawdzamy fakty, Onet, 11.07.2021);

- Change in the downward trend in the number of infections, announced by the Ministry of Health;

Selected articles:

Minister Zdrowia: Pierwszy taki dzień po apogeum III fali, Interia Wydarzenia, 11.07.2021.
Zmiana trendu zakażeń. Adam Niedzielski przestrzega i pokazuje wykres, Onet Wiadomości, 11.07.2021.
- I. Żurek, Niedzielski: Linia trendu dotycząca nowych zakażeń przestała maleć. I pokazuje wykres, Gazeta.pl, 11.07.2021.

- The problem of non-recognition of vaccination certificates for non-Europeans, despite being vaccinated with twin formulations under the COVAX program (M. Broniatowski (red.), Dlaczego unijne paszporty szczepionkowe dyskryminują Afrykańczyków? [OPINIA], Onet Politico, 11.07.2021);

- A case of an infection with two mutations of coronavirus at the same time (Zmarła 90-latka zarażona jednocześnie dwoma wariantami koronawirusa. „To jeden z pierwszych udokumentowanych przypadków”, wPolityce.pl, 13.07.2021);

- News on the fourth wave in Poland; 

Selected articles:

- J. Kamińska, Kogo dotknie czwarta fala pandemii? Specjalista o szczepieniach i grupach ryzyka, Interia Wydarzenia, 14.07.2021.
Ważne ostrzeżenie. Wiceminister zdrowia przyznaje: Myślę, że czwarta fala pandemii jest nieuchronna. „Wszystko w naszych rękach”, wPolityce.pl, 15.07.2021.
Pandemia koronawirusa w Polsce. Według wiceministra Kraski grozi nam czwarta fala, Onet Wiadomości, 15.07.2021.

Conclusions:

When it comes to the non-European vaccines, they are being discussed mostly in a negative light. There were, for example, several news about the unfavorable pandemic situation in Russia (Epidemia koronawirusa. Fatalne dane o zgonach z Rosji, ponad 700 zarejestrowanych w ciągu doby, Gazeta.pl, 12.07.2021), which may suggest that the state does not cope with infections due to the lack of Western formulations and immunization with Russian vaccines only. Another article concerned the mass export of Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines by China (Chiny są największym eksporterem szczepionek na COVID-19, Interia Wydarzenia, 14.07.2021), despite clinical trials that proved Moderna or Pfizer to be more effective, and lack of information on the effectiveness of Chinese preparations against delta variant. Another example is the comparison of the Pfizer and Sinovac vaccines (K. Cieślik, Szczepienia przeciw COVID-19. Pfizer nawet 10-13 razy skuteczniejszy niż Sinovac [BADANIE], Gazeta.pl, 16.07.2021) – the conducted studies showed a higher concentration of antibodies among patients who had been vaccinated with the American formulation. 

As a result, Polish media were indirectly promoting a narrative that Europe offers the best and most effective vaccines in terms of quality. On the other hand, countries that did not purchase Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna or J&J have not been handling the pandemic well and generally “came out worse” because of their protectionism.

On the other hand, Polish portals were in some way "intimidating" the same audience with sensational headlines and conspiracy theories about formulations registered in Poland, which could have contributed to the growing skepticism towards vaccinations. Regardless of the assurances of rare cases of more serious complications.

Information from abroad, despite its peculiarity, still concerned the Polish reader, because it largely contained the positions of research institutes from around the world on vaccines available in Poland. Websites rarely described the internal situation of other countries, familiarized with local methods of fighting the pandemic or other similar topics. The exceptions were countries that were doing very badly (i.e. Russia), "pioneering" countries in terms of the immunization program (i.e. Israel) and famous tourist destinations (i.e. Malta, Italy).

As usual, most of the topics focused on a regular provision of the statistics regarding the infections, mortality, and vaccination rates in Poland. Additionally, information about the nationwide vaccine lottery and new vaccine supply to the country was being regularly updated.

 

Author: Raffaella Margaryan
Editorial supervision: Marta Kowalska
Graphic layout: Katarzyna Rogala

READ THE FULL REPORT: The article is part of the report: “COVID-19 vaccines in Polish- and Russian-language online media outlets: specifics and correlation between them in Polish and Russian information spaces”, which we are about to publish soon.

Methodology

See related:

COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 10 May and 23 May 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 24 May and 6 June 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 7-20 June 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 21 June and 4 July 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 19 July and 1 August 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 2-15 August 2021
COVID-19 Vaccines: Polish information space in the period between 16-29 August 2021

The publication is part of the report: “COVID-19 vaccines in Polish- and Russian-language online media outlets: specifics and correlation between them in Polish and Russian information spaces”.  This report has been prepared with support from IRI's Beacon Project. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of IRI.