Doubting its usefulness leads to the re-emergence of infectious diseases
Vaccine skepticism..a long story more than two centuries old
The failure of the vaccination campaigns is attributed to the suspiciousness of the rural population and the adherence to conspiracy theories.
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The suspicion of vaccination, or even the outright rejection of it by a group of people, is not the product of an epidemic
“Covid-19,” but “is as old as vaccines themselves,” says health historian Patrick Zilberman.
For centuries smallpox was a powerful viral disease before it was eradicated in the 1980s thanks to vaccination.
In 1796, a British physician, Edward Jenner, had the idea of inoculating a child with a benign dose of the disease to boost his immune reaction.
This approach has paid off, but it has raised suspicion and some fears from the start.
An empirical method of inoculation had been in place before the experiments on smallpox, which in turn was the subject of heated debate in Europe in the 18th century.
Smallpox vaccination became mandatory in Britain for children in 1853. This mandatory vaccination aroused fierce opposition.
Opponents of this idea cited the “risk” of vaccinating products derived from animals, “religious reasons,” or “violation of individual liberties,” according to researchers Annick Guimuzin and Marion Mathieu in the book “Vaccination: Aggression or Protection?”
(Vaccination: Assault or Protection?) issued by the “Insern” Center and “Le Moscadier” house.
The “conscience clause” was added to British law in 1898 to exempt the undecided from being vaccinated.
At the end of the 19th century, Louis Pasteur developed a rabies vaccine based on an attenuated strain of the virus, but this method was also suspect and Pasteur was accused of seeking to profit by making a "laboratory dog".
Vaccines proliferated in the 1920s, against tuberculosis (BCG 1921), diphtheria (diphtheria 1923), tetanus (1926) and whooping cough (1926).
In this particular period, the use of aluminum salts began to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines.
After more than half a century, these salts have become questionable and accused of causing diseases.
In 1998, a study published in the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet" suggested a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, and autism.
In the end, it turned out that the study was "fabricated" by its author, Andrew Wakefield.
Neither the official statement issued by the magazine to refute these findings, nor the many subsequent work that demonstrated the absence of such a link, did not allay fears.
This study is still an argument often used by anti-vaccination opponents to justify their position.
This “questioning the feasibility of vaccines” leads to “the re-emergence of some infectious diseases,” according to what Patrick Zilberman revealed, in his book “La Guerre de Vaxanne” (The Vaccine War).
Measles killed 207,500 people in the world in 2019, a death toll that is 50% higher than that recorded in 2016, in light of the decline in vaccination coverage, according to the World Health Organization.
In 2009, the H1N1 influenza pandemic, caused by a virus of the same strain as the 1918 Spanish flu, prompted the World Health Organization to sound the alarm.
Large-scale vaccination campaigns were organized, but in the end the pandemic turned out to be less dangerous than expected.
Conspiracy theory
Polio, which was completely eradicated in Africa in August 2020, according to official data, remains widespread in Asia, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The failure of the vaccination campaigns is attributed to the suspiciousness of the rural population, and the aversion to conspiracy theories.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban banned these campaigns, describing them as a plot orchestrated by the West.
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