ArticlePloS one2025
How did Ontario healthcare institutions implement and legitimize Covid-19 vaccine mandates? A qualitative multi‑method study protocol.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- 'When I had concerns about my own patients…I was told to keep quiet': experiences of moral injury among healthcare workers under Covid-19 vaccine mandates in Alberta, Canada.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUpon the WHO declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) - unvaccinated by necessity - were celebrated as "heroes" for their service under difficult conditions. Later, as some of them resisted vaccine mandates, they were reframed as "threats", regardless of personal behaviour, workplace setting, or evidence of their harmfulness. This discursive shift and the institutional mechanisms supporting it remain underexamined. GOAL: This protocol outlines a qualitative multi‑method study investigating the implementation of Covid-19 vaccine mandates in medical establishments across Ontario, Canada.
methodsThis qualitative multi‑method planned study includes two phases. Phase 1 is an environmental scan of institutional vaccine mandate policies across a purposive sample of diverse Ontario medical establishments. It will track policy implementation timelines, mandates scope, exemptions eligibility criteria, and supporting scientific evidence presented. Phase 2 is a critical interpretive analysis of documents collected in Phase 1 that draws on Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy and legitimacy, Carol Bacchi's "What Is the Problem Represented to Be" (WPR) approach, and Brian Martin's framework on suppression of dissent to identify patterns in the institutional framing and treatment of challenges to mandated vaccination. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: The study outlined in this protocol is expected to yield descriptive and interpretive insights into how bureaucratic structures shaped mandate enforcement and dissent suppression. Results are expected to inform academic debates on institutional legitimacy, governance, and public health ethics.
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