Discourses of Health, Wellbeing, and Sanitation in the Victorian Anti-Vaccination Popular Press: A Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis of the VicVaDis Corpus

The study explores discourses of health, wellbeing, illness, disease, and sanitation in Victorian anti-vaccination literature through a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the VicVaDis corpus performed using the LancsBox tool. The analysis reveals that Victorian anti-vaccinationists consistently framed vaccines as dangerous, disturbing the natural state of health, and linked them to various diseases. They advocated for sanitation and hygiene over vaccination, expressing scepticism towards emerging medical practices. The conclusions highlight the continuity of themes in anti-vaccination rhetoric from the Victorian era to the present, where similar arguments against vaccination persist, focusing on natural health, mistrust of medical authority, and anecdotal evidence.