It is an honour for me to receive Dr. Philippe de Chazournes today in the Parisian offices of the European Parliament. Dr. de Chazournes has fought long and hard as spokesperson for doctors in the current scandal linked to the Gardasil vaccine, the famous Sanofi-Pasteur MSD vaccine against certain strains of the human papillomavirus which can cause cancer. A large number of doctors have signed his open letter to Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs, expressing their fears around the idea of doubling the vaccination rate of young girls with a vaccine whose effectiveness is scientifically controversial. Some of them are here today and I thank them for this. They are demanding a parlementary mission to clarify this question. Last April, I personally asked for a moratorium, i.e. that we stop mass vaccination with this vaccine until in-depth research can be performed on its benefits, risks and effectiveness.
Vaccine safety is being increasingly questioned as a general rule. Between 2005 and 2010, the proportion of French people in favour or very in favour of vaccination dropped from 90% to 60% (2013 INPES Peretti-Waterl health barometer). The percentage of French between the ages of 18 and 75 who are anti-vaccination increased from 8.5% in 2005 to 38.2% in 2010. In 2005, 58% of doctors apparently questioned the usefulness of vaccines administered to children while 31% of doctors were expressing doubts about vaccine safety. These figures must surely have increased since then.
Alongside this dramatic slump in confidence, research carried out worldwide – here in France by R. – K. Gherardi and F.-J. Authier, in Canada by C. Shaw and L. Tomljenovic, in North America by S. Seneff and S.-H. Lee, in Israel by Y. Shoenfeld and in the UK by C. Exley and others – blames the dangerous toxicity of the aluminium salts used as adjuvants in vaccines.