Professor Joyeux, an anti-vaccination figure, was tried on appeal by the national disciplinary chamber of the Order of Physicians for having published two anti-vaccine petitions on the Internet in 2014 and 2015.
“I am not at all struck off, I have no blame. What does that mean? It means that I am right!”, Stubborn Professor Joyeux to an AFP journalist in the outcome of the verdict. The national disciplinary chamber of the Order of Physicians ruled on Tuesday that the doctor’s anti-vaccine remarks “did not go beyond the principle of freedom of expression”. In fact, the complaint lodged against him by the National Council of the Order of Physicians was dismissed. Deemed “insufficiently motivated”, she expungement pronounced in first instance on July 8, 2016 by the disciplinary chamber of Languedoc-Roussillon was also annulled.
Two anti-vaccine online petitions
At the origin of this case? Two anti-vaccine petitions posted online in September 2014 and May 2015. The first challenged a recommendation of the High Council for Public Health, never followed by the government, advocating lowering from 11 to 9 years the age of vaccination against papillomavirus for girls. But this letter “participates in the freedom left to any individual in a democratic state to express his opinion on a subject which concerns him”, estimated the national disciplinary chamber.
The second petition denounced the replacement of the trivalent DTPolio vaccine (protecting against diphtheria, tetanus and polio) by a hexavalent vaccine (protecting against six diseases) and mainly pointed to the presence of aluminum, the dangers of which have never been demonstrated. scientifically. “The toxicity of aluminum as an adjuvant and the dangerousness of the hepatitis B vaccine have been the subject of much controversy for several years,” noted the appeal court. Cited as a reference by anti-vaccines, the 72-year-old doctor is now disputed by a large part of the medical community.
11 compulsory vaccines
Whatever one thinks, 11 vaccines are now mandatory for newborns since last January. Vaccinations already compulsory such as those against tetanus, diphtheria or polio are now listed alongside eight other new vaccines, “previously recommended” but now mandatory: those against meningitis due to Haemophilus influenzae type b or meningococcus C, pertussis, hepatitis B, pneumococcal infections and the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine.
These 11 vaccines must be administered (except in the event of a recognized medical contraindication) within the child’s first 18 months. They may “be payable for entry or maintenance in the community from the 1er June 2018 “for children born in 2018, states the ministry. The public health code provides that a child is provisionally eligible when one or more vaccinations have not been administered. Parents then benefit from a period of three months to have him vaccinated, but whether pro or anti-vaccine, these 11 vaccinations are now mandatory.
The benefit of vaccination
There is a minimum threshold for vaccination coverage for “group protection” to work in those who cannot be vaccinated (newborns, immunocompromised, etc.). This threshold depends on the contagiousness of the disease. In France, with a vaccination coverage of nearly 97% for diphtheria, the threshold for group immunity is exceeded and it is therefore the entire national community that is protected, including in the event of an infection brought by a migrant. . Likewise, infections with Haemophilus influenzae b in children, rubella or mumps have almost been eliminated in the country because their vaccine coverage rates exceed the group immunity threshold for these 3 diseases.
On the other hand, the current level of vaccination coverage against measles (79%) remains insufficient to allow group immunity (group immunity threshold = 94%), and we are therefore witnessing epidemic resurgences of the disease of great magnitude. : more than 23,000 cases declared in France between 2008 and 2012, more than 1,500 severe pneumonia and more than 30 encephalitis with 10 deaths). Likewise, insufficient coverage with the meningitis C vaccine (70% by age 2, but low in adolescents and young adults) is responsible for the majority of the nearly 800 cases and 100 deaths that have occurred. since 2011.
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