How the Malian press treated hydroxychloroquine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background The global debate on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on COVID-19 has gone far beyond the scientific framework and has been highly politicized. These issues immediately invested the debate on HCQ and made it an object of particular crystallization. This study analyzes, through the Malian press, the echo of this debate in the national background. Methods Mixed methods design, based on a review of 452 articles about COVID-19 published by six major Malian newspapers, from January 1st to July 31st 2020. Results of a content analysis with WORDSTAT8 software were further explained by a thematic qualitative analysis using and deductive-indictive approach. Results The debate on HCQ has had very little echo in the Malian press despite some interest, because of a lack of anchoring and thus of a "response" at the national level. The national health authorities, who adopted the treatment as part of clinical trials, and the press, stayed away from both the medical and the "ideological" components of the debate, despite these a priori directly involved a country like Mali. Conclusions The paper sheds light on the issues at stake in the HCQ debate based on a case study of an atypical country in terms of impacts of Covid-19. The governance of COVID helped crystallize political opposition to the presidential regime leading to a coup in August.