'This year’s vaccine is only 10% effective': an investigation of lay understanding of medicine in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper examines the factors that influence patients’ understanding of medical knowledge through a case analysis of a vaccine incident in Hong Kong. The on-going tensions between the voice of “lifeworld” (i.e. patients) and “medicine” (i.e. healthcare professionals) have long been an interest of health communication research (see Mishler, 1984). This paper intends to contribute to this by looking at patients’ voice on a social online platform which potentially empowers them in terms of information access and voice projection. Specifically, 968 Facebook comments on the reporting of the vaccine incident were collected and analysed using qualitative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). It is found that there are four major factors at play: interpretation of online research, reflection of personal experience, Government’s manner of information delivery and representation of health professionals’ image. The paper highlights the interplay between scientific, political and ethical factors in patents’ construction of medical knowledge. This analysis also demonstrates the resourcefulness of online social media in revealing the voice of patients in the real world, informing future research of potential directions in the examination of health communication in media.