Two centuries of vaccination and distrust

The distrust of vaccines and the total rejection of a part of the population to be vaccinated are phenomena that appeared when this technique was invented, at the end of the 18th century.

“Vaccination refusal is as old as vaccination itself,” according to health historian Patrick Zylberman. Now that feeling is back in the news with COVID-19 because the authorities are pressing for the maximum population to be inoculated.

Traveled through more than two centuries of advances and suspicions.

“Diabolical”

Smallpox was a terrible disease for many centuries, until its eradication in 1980 thanks to vaccines.

Before the invention of vaccination, there was an immunization process since the beginning of the 18th century: it was about inoculating the virus through scarifications on the arms, since an infection through the blood was less dangerous than through the respiratory route.

The method aroused controversy throughout the eighteenth century in Europe, both scientifically and religiously. An English clergyman, Edmund Massey, in 1772 compared the method to a “diabolical” operation that was founded “neither on the laws of nature nor on those of religion.”

Fear of “animal product”

In 1796, the English physician Edward Jenner had the idea of ​​inoculating a child with a form of the mild smallpox virus to stimulate its immune reaction.

The process worked, “vaccination” was born. But mistrust and fear quickly arose. A cartoon from 1802 shows a vaccination session where inoculated people are transformed into monsters, half man half cow.

“Vaccination is about introducing an animal product into a human body. It is an abomination, the animalization of the human being”, explains Patrick Zylberman.

Obligations and exemptions

In the UK, smallpox vaccination was made compulsory for children from 1853, in a series of laws that provided for fines for recalcitrant parents.

This obligation generated the virulent opposition of its detractors, who criticized the “violation of individual freedoms”, explain researchers Annick Guimezanes and Marion Mathieu.

From 1898 a “conscience clause” was introduced into British law to allow parents who did not want their children to be vaccinated to avoid penalties.

“Lab Rage”

In 1885, Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine against rabies from an attenuated strain of the virus. In 1885 a successful injection was given to Joseph Meister, a boy who had been bitten by a dog suspected of having rabies.

In this case there was also mistrust. Pasteur was accused of wanting to enrich himself by manufacturing “laboratory rage.”

BCG, diphtheria, tetanus…

The 1920s saw the multiplication of vaccines against tuberculosis (BCG, 1921), diphtheria (1923), tetanus (1926) and whooping cough (1926).

Also in this decade, aluminum salts began to be used as an adjuvant to increase the efficacy of vaccines. This will also be a source of suspicion for opponents of vaccines, particularly in France.

SPR: false study, true mistrust

In 1998, a study published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet suggested a relationship between MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccines and autism.

It is discovered that it is a “fix” of the author Andrew Wakefield. But neither the official denial of the magazine nor the subsequent works demonstrating the absence of a link managed to quell the fears.

This study is still routinely cited by opponents of vaccines.

Expelled in 2010 from the association of British doctors, Andrew Wakefield reappears in the United States with an anti-vaccine speech with conspiracy touches, as reflected in his conspiracy documentary “Vaxxed” (2016).

H1N1 vaccine and narcolepsy

In 2009, the H1N1 flu pandemic sounded alerts at the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccination campaigns were prepared, but the epidemic was less serious than expected.

Millions of doses had to be destroyed and the criticisms of mismanagement reinforced mistrust.

One of the vaccines, Pandemrix, can increase the risk of narcolepsy, a sleep disorder. In Sweden, of 5.5 million people vaccinated, 440 people were officially recognized as suffering from this disease and were compensated.

Taliban turnaround in the face of polio

Officially eradicated since August 2020 in Africa thanks to the vaccine, polio is resisting in Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where this disease, which causes paralysis in the smallest, remains endemic.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban previously denounced vaccination campaigns as a Western plot to sterilize Muslim girls. Since they returned to power in August 2021, they have collaborated on campaigns with the WHO and Unicef.