(AFP) – Accompanied by its “infodemic”, the Covid-19 pandemic has constituted an unprecedented sounding board for disinformation networks, offering vaccine skeptics visibility and popularity from which certain figures still benefit five years later.
“Dangerous” side effects or “never tested” products: “anti-vaxxers” did not wait until 2020 to spread false information about vaccines. But the emergence of Covid-19 served as an accelerator, “helping to transform a niche movement into a more powerful force,” notes a study published in the journal in The Lancet in 2023.
The pandemic gave vaccine skeptics the opportunity to change strategy. Previously aimed at parents – children receiving the greatest number of injections – their speeches have become widespread, making it possible to reach a much wider audience.
“During this period, we observed several bubbles with normally tight contours converging towards anti-vaccinationism,” describes Romy Sauvayre, lecturer in sociology and specialist in medical beliefs.
Alongside the usual conspiracy theorists, followers of alternative medicine, political figures but also from the medical field have multiplied false or unfounded statements about vaccines or the virus itself.
The debates around the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a remedy for Covid-19 promoted by Didier Raoult – whose founding study was recently invalidated – have thus agitated part of the population, supporting him in his crusade.
Like him, other figures with scientific or medical capital have stood out by opposing the scientific consensus.
“Behind these sometimes quite radical media doctors lie more broadly issues of trust with regard to health authorities,” points out Jeremy Ward, research fellow at Inserm and co-author of a vast report on vaccination in France since 2020 .
-Defense of freedoms-
Beyond concerns in terms of health, “this movement is mainly structured around the defense of individual freedoms”, underlines Jocelyn Raude, researcher in health psychology. This is evidenced by the numerous demonstrations across the four corners of the globe against restrictive measures and compulsory vaccination.
The pandemic has thus allowed the anti-vaccine movement to continue its rapprochement with the conservative right, propelling its activists sometimes to the highest echelons of political power, of which Robert Kennedy Jr remains the best example.
-A former environmental law lawyer, the nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy was propelled by Donald Trump to head the future American Department of Health.
A victory and recognition for the anti-vaxxers with whom he marched during the demonstrations, affirming for example that Covid-19 was an “ethnically targeted” virus.
According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an NGO that fights against online disinformation, “RFK Jr” and his anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense – from which he temporarily withdrew – are also one of the twelve main broadcasters of news during the pandemic.
“It is one of the fastest growing anti-vaccine accounts during the pandemic. We are talking about an audience of hundreds of thousands or millions of people. It is a very strong position to build a base of support for his political ambitions”, explains Callum Hood, head of research at the CCDH.
-Antisystem and social networks-
During the pandemic, social networks were in fact “the spearhead of attempts to disinformation about vaccines,” notes Noel T. Brewer, professor at the school of public health at the University of North Carolina and the one of the authors of the study published in the Lancet.
But the consequences in terms of public health are difficult to analyze. “Some researchers believe that repeated exposure to false information can lead people to refrain from getting vaccinated, while others believe that the effects of this exposure are relatively weak because it would only allow them to justify hesitancy pre-existing vaccine”, develops Jocelyn Raude.
Today, the movement has run out of steam a little with the decline in interest in Covid-19, but those who gained notoriety by misinforming during the pandemic have learned to renew themselves.
“These are the same accounts which now share pro-Russian or climate-sceptical content,” presents Laurent Cordonier, sociologist and research director of the Descartes Foundation.
“There is a strategic side but also a real coherence in touching on these different subjects which seem to have no link between them. The driving force is the anti-system,” explains the researcher.
