A caregiver prepares a dose of Covid vaccine in Marseille. – Daniel Cole / AP / SIPA
“Health mistreatment”, “covidist madness”, “totalitarian measure” … While the vaccination of children against Covid-19 is not yet on the agenda, a passionate debate has been engaged in recent days on the networks social, against a backdrop of conspiracy and anti-ax offensive [anti-vaccin]. Under the hashtag
#TouchPasAMesChildren and #TouchePasAMesGosses, many Internet users have expressed since Wednesday, through tweets, their opposition to childhood vaccination.
This is an article from Chained duck dating from Wednesday, April 21, shared on Twitter, which set fire to the powders. “The government is thinking […] the possibility of vaccinating children over 10 years of age by the end of the summer “in order to achieve” collective immunity “, we can read. For the moment, “the French and European authorities want to verify that vaccines for young people are safe and effective,” adds the weekly.
Mobilization of anti-vaccines
While at no time was it mentioned that childhood immunizations would be mandatory, some rushed to spread this false information. In a tweet posted this Wednesday, Fabrice Di Vizio, lawyer for Didier Raoult and former columnist for TPMP, assured that “children’s vaccination is in the pipes like compulsory vaccination!” “, Calling in the wake of a” general mobilization “and to prepare” actions “.
An idea taken up and supported by tens of thousands of Twittos under the hashtags #TouchePasAMesEnfant and #TouchPasAMesGosses, which again this Saturday, were ranked in the top 5 trending topics on Twitter, that is to say the most commented topics on the social network.
If some have said they are opposed to “any plan to use children as guinea pigs in a gene experiment for a disease that does not concern them!” Most made it clear that they were antivaxers, as shown by the hashtag #JeNeMeVaccineraiPas at the end of their tweet. Many of them have also put forward conspiracy theories, such as this Internet user for whom “the future installation of a vaccine park at Disneyland” is the “symbol” of a strategy already at work.
Some right-wing politicians have also come to feed this debate on social networks. “This world is going crazy (…) Pannier-Runacher had sold the wick: it will be in the fall for 12-17 year olds. Benefit = non-existent. Risk = unknown ”, tweeted Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of Debout la France, and presidential candidate 2022.“ Faced with covidist madness: #TouchePasAMesenfants! Neither to our freedoms, our dignity, nor to our country! “, For his part wrote the former vice-president of the National Front, Florian Philippot.