Politicization of Public Health Crisis in Iran: A Social Media Big Data Analysis During the COVID-19 Era

Background and Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that public health has transformed from a purely biological and technical domain into a political, social, and cultural arena. In societies with deep political or media cleavages, the phenomenon of "health politicization" has become a determining factor in the success or failure of health policies.



Method: This study employs a computational social science approach and big data analysis of cyberspace to investigate the phenomenon of "politicization of the public health crisis" in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data include billions of posts and content generated on Twitter and Instagram platforms during three time periods: January 2021 , August 2021 ), and October 2021



Findings: The findings indicate that the issue of the COVID-19 vaccine, particularly after the announcement of a ban on vaccine imports from the three countries of the United States, Britain, and France, was heavily framed within political disputes. Anti-regime users, by distorting facts, attributed this ban to a political and factional decision, while pro-regime users exhibited largely defensive and emotional reactions. Consequently, the dominant narrative line in public opinion shifted from a health-oriented discourse to a political discourse, and the symbolic capital of the vaccine as a scientific and national achievement was undermined.



Conclusion: The results show that weaknesses in scientific communication, the lack of a single spokesperson, and the absence of a professional media narrative intensified this politicization. This study emphasizes the importance of crisis communication management, specialized explanation of health-oriented decisions, and the necessity of redefining the boundary between politics and health when facing future crises. The findings suggest that the politicization of health crises can severely undermine not only public trust but also social capital and governance effectiveness during emergencies.