Covid-19: with the vaccination campaign, the "anti-vax" conspiracy sphere comes out of the woods

The government is presenting its vaccine strategy against Covid-19 to the National Assembly this Wednesday.

But if the French are still cautious about these new treatments, the "anti-vax" sphere is downright windy.

And there are even conspiratorial figures at its head.

While the government presents its vaccine strategy this Wednesday, to the National Assembly, the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 continues to divide the French.

Many people deem insufficient knowledge about these new treatments, and question themselves.

Only this campaign also makes the nebula of anti-vaccines, also called the "anti-ax" sphere, active for decades and often led by figures of conspiracy theories, resurface even more strongly.

"The white blouse effect"

His videos are viewed tens of thousands of times on YouTube, where he has 37,000 subscribers.

Philippe Weber is one of the anti-vaccine figures, and presents himself as a "speaker", "awakener of conscience".

Mainly active on social networks, he is one of those who denounce the novelties of Pfizer vaccines against the coronavirus: "So here we are really talking about genetic manipulation", we hear him explain in his publications.

These statements are contradicted by current scientific knowledge, because the RNA of these vaccines cannot be transformed into human DNA in this case. 

CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS

> Covid-19 vaccines: what do we really know about their side effects?

> What do we know about "long Covid", these patients who are going through hell?

> These three facets of the coronavirus that you may not have heard of

> When are we in contact?

And other questions that we ask ourselves every day

> Coronavirus: the 5 mistakes not to make with your mask

Yet the general public can be all the more inclined to believe these speeches, as they are sometimes made by the doctors themselves.

This is called the "white coat effect": an expert, isolated from his colleagues, taking the posture of "whistleblower" at the heart of the system.

Like Professor Christian Perronne, who works at Garches hospital, in the Hauts-de-Seine.

And this is precisely the whole strategy of these "consciousness-raising" speeches of conspiracy.

Mix legitimate questions on these medical novelties, while extrapolating without providing any evidence.