This is not a surprise, but this time, figures from the European Commission confirm it: vaccination is experiencing a real crisis of confidence in Europe, as shown by a very first Eurobarometer survey published on Friday 26 April.
According to the survey, published as part of European Immunisation Week, 48% of Europeans believe that vaccines regularly produce side effects and 38% believe that vaccines can cause the disease against which they are supposed to protect.
Immunisation week is organized annually by the World Health Organization European Region. This year, the theme is: “Protected Together, #Vaccines Work””. The UN organisation has identified vaccine disinformation as one of the ten public health threats this year. It will also co-organise a world summit on immunisation on 12 September in Brussels.
Preventable diseases increase, confidence decreases
According to the European Commission, between 2016 and 2017, measles cases more than tripled in the EU, bringing the total to 14,000 cases in 2017. In addition, although the EU is currently polio-free, with declining vaccination rates, there is a risk that the virus will reappear on European soil. Seasonal influenza vaccination coverage in older age groups has also declined in recent years in most EU countries and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control estimates that 40,000 people in Europe, many of whom are elderly, die prematurely from seasonal influenza complications each year.
In response to these worrying figures, the European Commission has decided to carry out the first ever Eurobarometer survey on ‘European attitudes towards vaccination’ (27,500 people surveyed in the Twenty-Eight in the last two weeks of March). The results are impressive: in four Member States (Slovenia, Czech Republic, Malta and Croatia), a large majority of respondents believe that vaccines weaken the immune system; in five Member States, they believe that vaccines can cause the diseases against which they are supposed to protect (Latvia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Malta); in 16 Member States, half of respondents believe that vaccines can cause side effects (worst in Cyprus, Croatia and Malta).
Overall, the countries where people are least well informed are Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus. The survey does not identify countries with the lowest immunisation coverage rate.
What about the EU in all this?
Presenting these results to a small group of journalists, the Vice President for Growth, Jobs, Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen, reaffirmed the importance of immunization. “Vaccination is the most effective way [to control diseases: Editor's note] and it works. If I’m not vaccinated, others can suffer of that. It’s a question of solidarity”, he said.
It should be recalled that in December 2018, Member States endorsed a recommendation in which they were invited by the Commission to increase the vaccination rate in Europe (see EUROPE 12010/7, 12155/18). In addition, a joint action, co-financed by the Health Programme (€3.55 million), was launched a few months earlier. Why do only 20 out of 28 Member States participate? “Twenty States is already quite big knowing that it is voluntary cooperation”, replied the Vice-President, recalling that vaccination policy falls within the competence of national authorities. “We simply don’t have competence, we would need a treaty change. That’s why we are promoting voluntary cooperation, but I wouldn’t undermine the impact. It can provide a good solution”.
As for the idea of making vaccination compulsory, as is the case in France for 11 vaccines, once again, the Vice-President insists on subsidiarity: “It is up to the Member States to decide what functions the best, not the Commission. Voluntary or compulsory, both can function. But we (the Commission) cannot legislate”, (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)