While France is preparing to ride the fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, several overseas departments are still resisting.
Vaccination of the population is struggling in the West Indies, despite a summer marked by the deterioration of the health situation.
Rejection of the vaccine, mistrust of public authorities, failing health systems… There are many reasons for this protest in the face of health measures.
Roads closed, fires, clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators ... Since Monday, Guadeloupe has been shaken by an indefinite general strike to protest against the vaccination obligation of caregivers against Covid-19 and the health pass.
"When we impose such violence [the suspension for refusal of the vaccine] on people whom we applauded yesterday, it is easy to understand that we cannot remain silent and that we are angry", explained Gaby Clavier. , UTS-UGTG union representative at the CHU, on local radio RCI.
On Friday, the regional prefect, Alexandre Rochatte, instituted an immediate curfew "given the ongoing social movements and acts of vandalism" and the government announced the dispatch of 200 police and gendarmes.
In Martinique, opposition to health measures is also fierce, to such an extent that the government has been forced to postpone the entry into force of the compulsory vaccination for caregivers, which was to take place on November 14, until December 31.
While in France, the vaccination rate is 89% for those over 18, the West Indies are lagging behind.
In Martinique, 39.4% of the population have a complete vaccination schedule and 36.39%, according to the departmental ARS.
A low rate, while the fourth wave of Covid-19 was virulent in these territories this summer and they hold the highest hospital mortality rates.
Tensions in New Caledonia and Polynesia despite a favorable vaccination campaign
Anger is also roaring in New Caledonia.
Scheduled for October 31, 2021, the vaccination obligation in so-called sensitive sectors has been postponed to December 31.
Le Caillou, whose population is 61.58% fully vaccinated, voted in early September in favor of compulsory vaccination for all at the end of the year.
In Polynesia, a warning of "unlimited general strike" was filed Tuesday, November 16, despite a vaccination rate of 67.6%.
The mobilization, which could begin Wednesday, November 24 at midnight, is led by an inter-union of five organizations.
She presented several grievances, first of all the withdrawal of the law on compulsory vaccination, but also several questions on purchasing power.
Fear and not understanding the vaccine
Why does part of the population remain reluctant to be vaccinated? Several factors are put forward. On the medical level, opponents of vaccination protest against the alleged lack of perspective on the effects of RNA vaccines, their reliability, as well as their possible toxicity for the human body. In the West Indies, the death of the leader and singer of Kassav 'Jacob Desvarieux, despite a triple vaccination against Covid-19, fueled theories on the ineffectiveness of the vaccine. The spread of false information and conspiracy theories has reinforced mistrust of the vaccine, perceived as a poison aimed at eliminating a large part of black people in the world ...
In an article published on AOC, sociologist Stéphanie Mulot mentions "the fear of suffering irreversible effects (thrombosis, myocarditis, stroke, sterility) or even of dying". For a segment of the population, the vaccine terrifies more than the Covid-19 itself, the effects of which "could be controlled by different treatments". Thus, in recent months, methods and protocols aimed at boosting the immune system have been acclaimed by the population. In New Caledonia, tribes praise the consumption of herbal teas of traditional medicine and prayer, rather than opening the door to strangers or going to vaccinodromes - if, however, distance allows them. “Certain Guadeloupeans have told us that they cannot be vaccinated because, in their church,the vaccine and the virus are perceived as being the work of the devil who is currently fighting with God, ”notes researcher Stéphanie Mulot, associated with the Caribbean Social Sciences Laboratory.
Controversial products such as hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin have been very successful in certain territories, and their figures such as Didier Raoult, Luc Montagnier, Christian Perronne or Laurent Mucchielli, are presented as misunderstood geniuses whose words are discredited by the authorities, but also as rebels who would refuse to bow to pharmaceutical groups "greedy for profits", ignoring the eminence of researchers who participate in the development of vaccines. "People do not understand that these are complementary treatments, for detoxification for example, and not alternative treatments", deplores the Guadeloupe senator Victorin Lurel.The former overseas minister under François Hollande regrets that “opposition to vaccination has been made a strategy of struggle against the government, against the State, against colonialism”.
“These debates allowed ordinary citizens to comment on scientific work, by canceling the distances and hierarchies of status, knowledge and skills between expert specialists and the population, to consider that any experiential and protest opinion could to be considered as a word as relevant as the critical production of researchers ”, analyzes researcher Stéphanie Mulot. In addition, the posture of presumed experts in the media in France, conveying analyzes oscillating between clichés and prejudices, has fueled the feeling of contempt for the population. Like Doctor Hervé Boissin, guest of journalist Darius Rochebin at 8 p.m. on the LCI channel,who last July to explain the low vaccination rate in the West Indies spoke of "voodoo" and "rum that does not cure everything".
🚨A doctor reacts to the low vaccination rate in the French overseas departments and territories
“It's cultural, there are other sources of information, I'm not going to come back to voodoo, but it still exists in these areas.
Many problems come from culture and rum does not cure everything ”pic.twitter.com/mqetK5R2FH
- BalanceTonMedia (@BalanceTonMedia) August 2, 2021
"All this therefore generates a fear of any new biochemical and pharmaceutical process which feeds a preference for traditional pharmacopoeia and local, idealized biodiversity", estimates sociologist Stéphanie Mulot.
Witness the fervor around Virapic in Guadeloupe last February, a syrup made from spike grass, a plant growing in the Caribbean, exploited by Dr Henri Joseph, presented as a barrier solution to the coronavirus.
But despite a patent filing on February 10, 2021, its effectiveness on the virus and its effects on the human body have not been corroborated by any study and scientific publication.
Mistrust of the state
In addition to the mistrust of science and medicine, the loss of confidence in official public speech has worsened in the Overseas Territories. Guadeloupe deputy Olivier Serva "evokes the weakening of the word of public authority" at the microphone of BFMTV as one of the reasons for the strike which is currently disrupting the island. This rejection of vaccination can also find its explanation in past health scandals, in particular that of chlordecone, a pesticide widely used in the French West Indies until 1993 when its great toxicity was known since the 1960s. This "terrible molecule which has poisoned our bodies, our flesh, our seas, our lands for 700 years. And on that, the State said that there was no problem that everything was fine, ”recalls Olivier Serva.The State was recognized to be "primarily responsible" for chlordecone pollution by a parliamentary committee in November 2019. The government is also deemed to be failing in its management of the proliferation of Sargassum algae, which regularly pollutes the coasts of the Antilles .
The crisis has highlighted the specificities and economic and societal issues of overseas territories. “We see that many are supported, are helped, at the level of the Hexagon and Guadeloupe, Martinique, the Antilles even, are not taken into account. What is important today for us is that the State can hear the grievances of Guadeloupe in order to work together, and above all to simplify the procedures ”, underlines the president of the Region of Guadeloupe Ary Chalus, on the air of Franceinfo. In Polynesia, the union alliance in charge of the possible general strike sent a letter to the High Commissioner of the Republic requesting "the revaluation of purchasing power to 4%, the catching up of leave related to confinement,the setting up of a fund to help employees who have involuntarily lost their jobs, or even the setting up of competition for tenure every six months to "avoid precariousness", "explains our colleagues from Polynesia La Première.
On the side of New Caledonia, the refusal to postpone the referendum on independence once again strained relations between Le Caillou and the French state.
For the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika), maintaining the election on December 12 in this epidemic context is like a "declaration of war against the Kanak people and progressive citizens".
The various separatist formations like the FLNKS called on their fellow citizens to boycott the ballot boxes.
Take into account local specificities
Several local elected officials also criticize the government for not taking into account the specificities and local realities in the application of health measures. "No coherent action in phase with the specificities of the territory can be envisaged without the support and participation of local communities," said Guy Losbar, the president of the departmental council of Guadeloupe, in a press release. "The health controls imposed by the State may have been perceived as insufficient", advances Stéphanie Mulot, recalling that the decisions concerning entry into the territory were taken "jointly with elected officials, representatives of the tourism, tourism sectors. 'hotels, restaurants and private companies, in order to maintain a level of economic activity and avoid too strong a recession ”.
Our dossier on overseas territories
The mass arrival of tourists in the Overseas Territories while France was under the influence of health restrictions had been the subject of much criticism from the local population.
Guy Losbar points to “the uncertainties weighing on the continuity of the healthcare offer throughout the archipelago”.
Throughout the crisis, the Ministry of Health mobilized reinforcements in overseas departments, testifying to the fragility of medical establishments, the lack of healthcare resources, exhausted by the crisis and of health services. deficient health.
Health
Coronavirus in Martinique: Postponement of the vaccination obligation for caregivers to December 31
Society
Coronavirus in Guadeloupe: Concern of the President of the Region in the face of the unlimited general strike
New Caledonia
Covid 19
Health
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Overseas
Society
Coronavirus
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