The French will be able to speak about vaccination and to make proposals to change vaccine policy in France on a platform accessible online until October 13, as part of the “citizen dialogue” organized on the subject by the government .
“The citizen consultation has better aim to understand the concerns, fears and criticisms remain with regard to vaccination, in order to provide adequate responses,” said Friday AFP Prof. Alain Fischer who co-chairs the steering committee of this “dialogue” announced in January by the health Minister Marisol Touraine.
citizen consultation
The “dialogue” started in May-June by two opinion surveys on vaccination (one for the general public and the other from health professionals) whose results have not yet been made public.
It continued this summer with the introduction of two juries; a citizen jury and a professional jury, whose mission is to interview experts, to discuss and give opinions.
According to Prof. Fischer, the juries have already met for three days in July and met again on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to finalize their opinions which will be presented to the policy committee.
Last stage of the “civic dialogue” , public opinion will be collected until October 13 on a “participatory space” accessible at contrib.concertation-vaccination.fr.
Every citizen is invited to express its opinion, individually or collectively. Among the required contributions, the committee mentions questions or opinions on vaccination recommendations for “improving confidence in immunization” and recommendations to “improve immunization coverage ‘ .
1 of 4 French has doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines
According to an international survey published last week by the EBioMedicine magazine , France is the European country with the most reluctance to vaccines, with one in four French who has doubts about the safety of vaccines while 17% doubt their efficiency.
These negative attitudes may be the result of the controversy surrounding recent years several vaccines, including the vaccine against hepatitis B vaccine (Gardasil, Cervarix) against infections with human papillomavirus (HPV), the cause of cancers genital, or the vaccine against pandemic influenza A (H1N1) in 2009.
“We expect our own investigations a more refined vision” commented for his part Prof. Fischer that needs to synthesize the opinions expressed and submit its recommendations to the Minister of Health, “probably during the second half of November” .
