“Pastor (…) would be turning in his grave”. Agnès Buzyn does not cut corners to address today in The Parisian the subject of vaccination in France. An explosive file, recalls the daily, that Marisol Touraine had carefully buried after having launched a vast national consultation.
Led by Professor Alain Fischer, the committee then concluded that the number of compulsory vaccines should be extended to eleven (1) for a period limited to five years. Today, only three are mandatory (DT-Polio), the other eight are recommended.
The new Minister of Health intends to put an end to “this French exception” by taking up the recommendations of Professor Fisher: “We are therefore considering making the eleven vaccines compulsory for a limited period, which could be five to ten years”, confides she to the newspaper.
And, according to the minister, there is urgency. “24,000 cases of measles since 2008, 10 deaths, 1,500 serious lung infections, 31 encephalitis”, she lists, recalling about meningitis: “It is unbearable that a 15-year-old teenager could die because he is not vaccinated”.
A month after her arrival, Agnès Buzyn therefore displays her determination. Even if it means clashing with part of the opinion opposed to compulsory vaccination, she intends to make “child protection” a “priority”. Her secret weapon: “pedagogy”, she asserts, in the interview granted to the Parisian. No doubt she learned from the mistakes of her predecessors on the subject. The massive vaccination campaigns imposed without any information campaign or the creation of Théodule committees to calm the symptoms without treating the disease have probably fueled doubts in public opinion.
(1) Polio, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, pneumococcus, meningococcus C.
Find L’Invité Santé with Pr Alain Fischer
aired on February 24, 2017
