Vaccines have saved millions of lives otherwise doomed by disease, yet they face growing mistrust from parents who are increasingly resistant to having their children vaccinated. A French researcher has tried to understand these refractory movements, motivated as much by their faith in alternative medicine as by their distrust of the authorities.
Always a minority, often discredited, the anti-vaccine movement brings together a heterogeneous nebula that Alicia Garcia, from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lorraine, wanted to study. Beware, however, of amalgams, she warns: “There is certainly a hereditary group of conspiracy theories which is suspicious of everything, but there is also another part, within the anti-vaccine movement, which is not against the vaccination, but instead defends freedom of choice when it comes to their children. »
These parents distrust authorities who determine for them what is beneficial for their children. “When they feel compelled to vaccinate them, they tell themselves that their son or daughter does not completely belong to them because they have no choice” about their fate, analyzes Alicia Garcia, who presented the results of her research at the Acfas congress on Tuesday morning.
The avowed objective of the researcher, “was to give voice to groups who are […] victims of double discrimination”. On the one hand, she explains, “the testimonies of anti-vaccine parents often have no validity in the eyes of the majority. On the other hand, when this majority interprets their discourse, it almost always sides with the institutions”. Result, analyzes the professor: “No one manages to understand them. »
A movement that goes back a long way
In Quebec, however, a significant number of parents share this hesitation. More than 90% of adults have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to data from the Ministry of Health. Among 5 to 11 year olds, the proportion drops to 66%: several vaccinated parents, therefore, refused to inoculate their children.
These parents disagree with the “much more interventionist” vision advocated by the institutions, according to the researcher. Where “Public Health wants to preserve the health of the community and ward off disease” by vaccinating the largest possible proportion of its population, hesitant parents advocate “Letting nature do its job”. Many even say they “prefer the disease to the vaccine”.
The phenomenon is neither new nor different from 150 years ago, maintains Alicia Garcia. Opposition to vaccines took root as soon as they appeared in the late 1800s.and century. Doctors, homeopaths and apostles of alternative medicine of all stripes distrusted Jenner’s discovery and Pasteur’s generalization of the practice.
Even today, professionals preach another medicine, doubt vaccines and question the consensus. “It’s not just mistrust,” continues the French researcher. It is another way of approaching health. »
In some cases, “there is a denial of the disease” which amounts to minimizing its gravity, or even to denying it by reducing it to a benign affliction. In other occurrences, “there is an exorcism of the disease”, maintains Mme Garcia, in which people believe that “if we don’t talk about it, it won’t come”. Some, finally, “prioritize positive thoughts. They focus on health rather than disease, as if that would promote a cure.”
“We are in the realm of belief,” continues the researcher. I didn’t want to show that the institutions or the parents are right. It is a phenomenon that has existed for a very long time, but that we still do not understand enough. However, this misunderstanding generates friction: we have an idea of the collective good to which groups do not adhere. »