The government is considering authorizing the vaccination of 12-15 year olds, the decision of which would mainly rest with the parents. (Drawing) – Andreea Alexandru / AP / SIPA
- A vaccination campaign for 12-15 year olds echoes that of 1994 against hepatitis B in high schools. One of the scandals that most impacted the mistrust of the French towards vaccines.
- Unlike 16-18 year olds, young teens go out less, impose their ideas less on their parents and potentially need less a vaccine to regain their freedoms.
- The responsibility therefore falls on the parents who will have to make their choice while there is still a lack of perspective on this brand new vaccine.
Should 12-15 year olds be vaccinated against the coronavirus? This is the question favorably answered by the Covid defense council on Wednesday. While the United States, Italy, Israel, Canada or more recently Singapore authorizes it for this age group, Emmanuel Macron has announced that 12-18 year olds will be able to be vaccinated from June 15. The favorable opinions in this direction were not lacking, even if the High Authority of Health (HAS) will not give its opinion until this Thursday.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) had already given the green light. Alain Fischer, the vaccine mister of the government had estimated on BFMTV that it would “perhaps not be unreasonable to consider” vaccinating 12-16 year-olds “at the start of the school year”, after the summer holidays. An opinion approved by some of the French, 55% of whom said they were in favor of opening vaccination to those under 18 as of now, according to the exclusive YouGov survey for 20 Minutes and Doctissimo. Nevertheless, several reasons could however make some parents reluctant.
The invisible traces of the hepatitis B scandal
Already, because historically “in France as soon as a vaccine is released, in particular for children or young people, it is the start of the fight, panic, we do not want it”, notes the doctor Chantal Maurage, pediatrician and professor emeritus. But this time especially, because a vaccination plan for 12-15 year olds would echo a scandal that has seriously shaken the confidence of some French people in vaccines. In 1994, a large vaccination campaign was launched in high schools to fight against hepatitis B, responsible in particular for liver cancer. But after the appearance of multiple sclerosis cases and the immense controversy that ensued, the operation was stopped.
“Even if the scientific authorities subsequently demonstrated that there was no cause and effect link, the scientific evidence was relatively inaudible, analyzes Caroline de Pauw, sociologist specializing in health subjects. This episode greatly affected French culture in terms of vaccine reluctance and it concerned teenagers. “
Fear of long-term side effects
All the experts agree, the first vaccines against the Covid came out in record time. Vaccination for the elderly and vulnerable to the disease has not really been the subject of debate. “We had absolutely no background on these vaccines, but we launched them for adults over 50 years old. So, for example, there was no risk for women of genetic transmission to a future baby, ”suggests Chantal Maurage, who notes that even if these risks are ruled out today, there are still some people who are in doubt.
And for good reason, the risk / benefit balance is not exactly the same for young people in good health and for many asymptomatic from the coronavirus. “On the one hand, we are talking about a relatively recent vaccine and on the other hand, only Pfizer is authorized to be administered to 12-year-old children. There is therefore a fear of parents about the fact that there may be side effects that would not have been foreseen because not yet sufficiently evaluated ”, underlines Caroline de Pauw.
Pending feedback from other countries
In terms of side effects, however, the two experts believe that the situation will be unblocked when we have large-scale feedback from countries that have started to vaccinate the youngest. “With the United States for example, we are on sociologically comparable populations and we can trust the figures that will be reported, because their health system is very secure in terms of vaccine accidents”, assures the sociologist specializing in health .
If the cases of vascular accidents could have legitimately scared, Chantal Maurage assures that RNA type vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna work differently and do not put young people at risk, “whether they are between 12-15 years old or between 15-20 years. It doesn’t change anything ”.
The huge difference between 12-15 and 16-18 year olds
However, the subject seems much more sensitive for the category of 12-15 years than for 16-18 years, for whom Alain Fisher recommends for example vaccination from this month of June. If the age difference in years is not enormous, it is nevertheless in the construction of adolescents at this period. “After 15 years we don’t control them, they do what they want, they go out. You can’t stop them from going where they want to go and bingeing. This is normal, explains the pediatrician. So by vaccinating them we protect the population from the risk of dissemination. “
They are also the ones who have taken the full brunt of the absence of social life: the impossibility of seeing friends because of the curfew and the closure of colleges / high schools and especially confinement with mum and dad while dreams of independence are louder than ever at this age. “The risk-benefit balance is clearly in favor of the direct and very utilitarian benefit for a 16-year-old. Around this age, he is able to make an informed choice and will tend to go for a vaccination to regain a social life more quickly, ”adds Caroline de Pauw.
Parents’ responsibility engaged
Conversely, the younger you are, the less you are able to make your own choices and guide your parents. For 12-15 children, as for the little ones, it is therefore up to the parents to make the heavy decision to choose for their offspring. And it is not because they were vaccinated that they will necessarily make the same decision for their children. “There, they assessed the risks to their own health, but it’s a little different when they have to do it for their children because they will have to assume the consequences all their lives, continues the sociologist. They say to themselves: “If I was wrong, I will have to live with my whole life and my child too”. “
Strangely, the fact that the vaccination is on a voluntary basis can curb hesitant parents. “When we made childhood vaccines compulsory, there was a controversy, but since its establishment the debate has been appeased, because by this obligation, we confirmed to parents that it was something relevant for children », Analyzes the expert.
On Twitter, however, we have already seen a glimpse of what such a decision would entail. At the end of May, after the dissemination of false information affirming that the vaccination of the youngest would be compulsory, the network was totally inflamed, revealing the very strong sensitivity around this subject.