Experts say coronavirus causes some anti-vaxxers to falter News from the world

According to experts, the coronavirus pandemic may be causing some anti-vaxxers to question their views, but others are doubling down, and vacillation of the vaccines, amplified by some celebrities, could seriously undermine a future inoculation program.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 70 candidate coronavirus vaccines are being developed, of which three are already under clinical evaluation. The world’s small but noisy anti-vaccination community seems divided on how to respond.

“Extremists, belief-driven groups that reject vaccination on principle, whose goal is to disrupt and polarize, are not changing, in fact they are capitalizing,” said Heidi Larson, director of the London-based Vaccine Trust Project. (VCP)

Some high-profile personalities with big followers on social media have also expressed skepticism. Novak Djokovic, the world’s number 1 tennis player, suggested on Facebook that his opposition to vaccines could prevent him from returning to the sport, saying he “would not want someone to force him to take a vaccine” to travel.

The outspoken British rapper M.I.A. She also received widespread criticism for tweeting: “If I have to choose the vaccine or the chip, I will choose death,” while Australian actress Isabel Lucas was fired as an ambassador for a girls’ charity after saying she “did not trust”. the vaccination path. “

However, Larson said there was also evidence that people who were “less safe for some reason, who may have problems with one particular vaccine, the MMR vaccine for their children, for example, may behave differently in the context of this pandemic. “

The VCP has launched an 18-month study with local partners around the world, conducting national surveys and examining online conversations about the coronavirus to try to gauge attitudes toward a future vaccine.

Larson said that after analyzing more than 3 million social media posts a day between January and March, she was confident that the vast majority of people were “eager for a coronavirus vaccine, and as soon as possible.”

There will, however, be resistance. The anti-vaccination movement has grown globally in recent years, fueled in part by a document discredited by the disgraced British physician Andrew Wakefield, who fraudulently claimed a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine ( MMR) and autism in children.

According to the WHO, which identified “vaccine vacillation” as one of the top 10 threats to world health last year, depending on the disease, between 75% and 95% of the population should be vaccinated to ensure herd immunity.

A 2018 Wellcome Trust survey of attitudes toward vaccines worldwide found that eight out of 10 people (79%) somehow or strongly agree that vaccines are safe, while 7% disagree totally or totally. The numbers vary across the world, with 72% in North America and 73% in Northern Europe accepting that vaccines are safe, but only 59% in Western Europe and 40% in Eastern Europe.

However, the scale and severity of the global coronavirus crisis may be eroding resistance to the vaccine. A recent VCP survey in the world’s most immunization-averse country, France, where 33% do not see vaccines as safe, found that only 18% of respondents would reject a coronavirus vaccine.

A UK survey in mid-March found that approximately 7% of people would reject a coronavirus vaccine, while a second survey in early April, as the number of Covid-19 deaths began to rise quickly showed that the percentage had dropped to 5%

In Russia, where according to the Wellcome Trust, only 62% of people agree that vaccines are effective, there are signs that concerns about the coronavirus crisis have caused conflict between anti-vaxxers and medical skeptics.

The administrator of The Truth about Vaccines, one of the largest social media groups dedicated to the subject, expressed frustration at the lack of discipline among its 100,000 members.

“Do you know what surprises me?” the anonymous administrator published. I am amazed at the reaction of opponents to vaccines in this group. Many … believe that there is a coronavirus epidemic in Russia. That people are sick and die of coronavirus. “

In Italy, Claudio Simion, from the leading anti-vaxxer group Comilva, said a vaccine was not the only solution and “may be a way to calm people down,” but added: “We are not hostile to vaccines on principle.”

Elsewhere, however, the pandemic appears to have hardened anti-Vaxxer attitudes. In the USA In the US, prominent figures in the movement have seized on Covid-19 to bolster their arguments and push conspiracy theories.

Del Bigtree, the producer of Vaxxed, the 2016 “documentary” written by Wakefield, has put together an hour-long presentation, still available on Facebook and YouTube, arguing that Covid-19 is a pharmaceutical industry montage to enrich itself.

Robert Kennedy Jr., the son of the murdered Democratic leader, accused Bill Gates and top public health officials on Twitter of conspiring to produce a vaccine with “unique and terrifying dangers.”

Scott Ratzan of the New York City University School of Public Health said he was alarmed by the results of a survey in New York City that showed that only 53% of residents were sure to receive a coronavirus vaccine and 29% would refuse.

“What if a large number of people decide not to vaccinate themselves or their children?” Ratzan said. “Right now, just half of New Yorkers tell us they will do that. If that is the case, we will not be able to protect our community against a new wave.”

Larson said the timing of the vaccine’s release, forecast for some time in 2021, could be critical, and many could be deterred by any suggestion that it might have been rushed and not adequately tested.

Overall, Larson said, she was not convinced that the coronavirus had a direct impact on anti-vaccination sentiment. But it did foresee a possible indirect impact, with fears of coronaviruses leading to the delay of measles vaccines in 24 countries and their cancellation in another 13, prompting concern from WHO and Unicef.

If the vacillation of the vaccine decreases after the Covid-19 crisis, Larson said, it is likely as a result of “outbreaks of other diseases, such as measles, which increases because parents are afraid to take their babies to the health during the pandemic. “

Additional reports from Ed Pilkington, Andrew Roth and Angela Giuffrida