The Jean Jaurès Foundation paints their portrait in a new study. Most of them are women, all levels of diploma combined. The study shows the necessary restoration of trust in institutions.
The good news is everywhere: pharmaceutical companies are advancing on promising vaccine candidates. The population could benefit from it as early as 2021. The progress towards a return to a deconfined life does not, however, delight everyone. The Jean Jaurès foundation, which carries out surveys and studies to take the pulse of French opinion, has produced a robot portrait of anti-vaccines, which are numerous: one in two French people according to Les Échos.
Who are they and why this fear, when some still called for chloroquine a few months ago in spite of the scientific controversy?
"They" are mostly young people and "they"
The first highlight is that women are the most wary of the new vaccine. They are 52% to fear side effects compared to 35% of men. Is this reminiscent of health controversies surrounding the cervical cancer vaccine? Is this related to the fact that the medical care of children, of which vaccines are part, most often the responsibility of women? The study does not say so.
Another surprise: anti-vaccines, far from a composite portrait of older people, are in fact relatively young. The study explains this simply: given that young people are the least afraid of the epidemic (because they were long considered protected by their age), what benefit do they think in getting vaccinated?
Finally, the “anti-vax” as they are called are, in the case of the coronavirus, quite heterogeneous in terms of diplomas. However, they are united on one point: mistrust of political and scientific institutions.
A fear linked to transpartisan political mistrust
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Vaccine? Mistrust does not belong to one political side in particular. The cleavage occurs at the level of confidence felt in institutions and governments; unsurprisingly, there are more anti-vaccines among those who consider the elite to be corrupt. All the more so if we talk about compulsory vaccination. Confidence is also correlated with that placed in scientists; but this confidence fell, as the media exposure of the scientific controversies, which are normal in the field, always explains the foundation.
But then, why this mistrust in the face of a sanitary process (vaccination) which nevertheless seems to have proved its worth in reducing diseases? For conspiracy theories specialist Rudy Reichstadt, there are several reasons for this. First, a reminder from the Jean Jaurès Foundation: the conspiracy theory to which the French adhere most is that "the government would be in cahoots with pharmaceutical companies to hide the reality of the harmfulness of vaccines" : 43% of our compatriots adhere to this belief. Then, interviewed by France Inter, Rudy Reichstadt explains: "There are several historical factors that explain this anti-vaccine mistrust. It is undoubtedly linked to failures in vaccine policy. Something less cyclical, too, namely that anti-vaccination is a disease. 'rich and developed countries where, precisely, vaccination coverage is high enough that a certain number of diseases, which are precisely prevented or in any case prevented thanks to vaccination, have ceased to circulate. is a worse evil than the disease it claims to prevent settles there more easily. Because, in a way, epidemics are no longer scary because they no longer kill people. "