While the race for the Covid-19 vaccine is in full swing between countries, the French anti-vaccine sentiment could well strike a fatal blow to this strategy. According to a study published in The Lancet on Wednesday, a quarter of French people do not plan to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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French scientists, members of the Coconel (Coronavirus & containment) project - funded by the National Research Agency - carried out an online survey at the end of March with a representative sample of the French population, over the age of 18. 26% of respondents said "if a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine becomes available, they would not use it," write the researchers. And this, at the height of the epidemic, even though confinement had been decreed for several days.
The profile of the respondents is particularly "worrying" according to the scientists. The most reluctant to get vaccinated are among the most "lowest income" people (37%), "who are more often exposed to infectious diseases" but also among women aged between 18 and 35 (36%) and people over 75 (22%). In other words, the people most vulnerable to the Covid are also those who would be the most reluctant to use a vaccine, considered as being the "only tool allowing a return to a feeling of normalcy" by the UN secretary general. The researchers also found a correlation between anti-vaccine sentiment and political opinion. Respondents who voted for a “far left or far right candidate” for the 2017 presidential elections were more “likely to declare that they would refuse the vaccine” , as were those “who abstained from voting” , notes still studying.
According to the researchers, there is a correlation between the refusal to get vaccinated against covid, and political opinions. Coconel project
These results "highlight a crucial question for public health interventions: how can we assure the public that the recommendations reflect the state of scientific knowledge rather than political interests?" , wonder the authors of the study. A problem which, according to them, would be exacerbated in times of crisis notably due to "considerable scientific uncertainty". The researchers also invite the French authorities not to make the same mistakes as in 2009, during the H1N1 flu epidemic. "One of the crucial mistakes made at the time by the French authorities was to refuse to communicate early on the subject of vaccine safety for fear that it would provoke irrational reactions". The key according to them? "Communicate transparently".