"Death sentence of their dog": how the anti-vax movement spread to pets | Society

SI can not say for sure what motivated him, but over the last few weeks, the Sydney vet has faced the same disturbing and seductive question: "Will this vaccination give my dog ​​autism?" ? "

"It's actually ridiculous. I mean, you hear gossip over the years, but in the last few weeks they have really grown, "he told Guardian Australia.

"Most of the time, people are fine, they are not fiercely against when you talk to them about science and statistics. [but] we had people go out into hysteria, saying that there is absolutely no way that their dog becomes [vaccinated] because they believe that it causes autoimmune diseases or, in particular, autism. "

Kovac is so disturbed by the trend that he felt pressured to talk about it in the Sydney Daily Telegraph this week, claiming that he did not think the anti-vaxxers deserved to see it. have animals as pets if they wanted to expose them to diseases such as canine parvovirus.

"They sentence their dog to death with one of the most shocking and horrible viruses you can imagine," he says.

"If a disease as contagious, as horrible and with a death rate as high as parvovirus existed in humans, this conversation would be so different."

Vaccines do not cause autism in dogs or in humans. But there is one important distinction: there is no autism in the dog.

"Well, there is certainly no recorded case of animals with the condition I know," says Kovac. "And there is no diagnostic test to check it in dogs or cats anyway."

The amplification of the anti-vaccination movement in online communities and its association with the rise of populism and anti-establishment policy have been well documented.

This year, the World Health Organization has included "reluctance to vaccinate" among its top 10 threats to global health, highlighting a 30% increase in the number of measles cases worldwide and a "resurgence" of the disease in countries that were on the verge of eliminating it. .

In March, the head of the British Health Service, Simon Stevens, blamed social media for "tripling the number of measles cases in the UK in 2018. In December, a Guardian investigation revealed how the right Populist European and American politicians capitalized on mistrust of the science of vaccines.

In 2015, Donald Trump had mistakenly associated immunization schedules to autism during a debate in the Republican primaries, while in Australia, One Nation's leader, Pauline Hanson, had been forced to apologize in 2017 after asserting that the government's vaccination policy amounted to blackmail.

But are our four-legged friends really the last front of the anti-vaccination movement's war?

Naomi Smith, a sociologist from the Federation University of Victoria, has published a study describing the anti-vaccination movement's presence on social media by browsing hundreds of thousands of publications and comments on Facebook's popular anti-vaccination pages.

The anti-vaccination movement was not born with social media, but Smith's research highlights the role that social media plays in promoting and amplifying its conspiracy theories.

Did they talk about dogs, though?

"Well, no, they did not do it, but what was really interesting was that after my publication, I received emails from vets saying that we also had saw this in our space, "she told Guardian Australia.

"So that's not in our data, but it's certainly something I've heard about since people have approached me about it."

Most disturbing was an email from a Queensland equine veterinarian, who told Smith that he was continually faced with the reluctance of anti-vaxxers opposed to the Hendra virus vaccine.

The Hendra vaccine is not devoid of criticism: last year, horse owners in New South Wales and Queensland filed a class action suit against the pharmaceutical company responsible for its development, claiming that they were not had not adequately warned of any undesirable effects. But Paula Parker, president of the Australian Veterinary Association, believes that much of the opposition to the virus rests on "bad faith" arguments.

"Unfortunately, some people have bad faith arguments about Hendra, and some people find themselves misinformed about rabbit burrows on the Internet. It's sad for us because it's an incredible vaccine for a life-threatening disease for both the horse and the man, "Parker says.

She is also aware of the wider reluctance of a small number of pet owners to vaccinate and sees a connection to the flourishing market of "holistic" animal care, which she says "seems to herald a reluctance to vaccination or other conventional treatments. .

"There are complementary therapies like acupuncture that are usefully added to conventional medicine, [but] The problem with homeopathy is that there is no regulation in this space, "she said.

"Most of them do not cause harm, they are simply not effective, but the biggest concern is that pet owners are looking for this type of care and delay the diagnosis and treatment required."

For Smith, too, there is a clear link between the so-called welfare industry and the spread of the anti-vaccination message.

"What's great about the wellness movement, or the industry, is that everybody can talk about it, you do not have to have any accreditation, and it seems like those conversations naturally lead to a suspicion of established bio-medicine. practices, "she says.

Smith cites the example of Taylor Winterstein, wife of NRL player Penrith Panthers, Frank Winterstein, who claims that vaccines are causing allergies and that parents are "intimidated" by doctors generalists who "incite" them to vaccinate their children.

The Daily Telegraph reported last month that Winterstein charged $ 200 for "informative" workshops and taught his opinion to other parents.

Winterstein told the newspaper that she "never said not to vaccinate", but added: "Vaccines are neither safe nor effective for everyone, a single program is not suitable for all. Biopersonal children and when there is a risk must always be the choice. "

Smith criticizes this approach: "The women of footballers organize anti-vaccination seminars and their references are basically very beautiful, which in a way means that they tell a deeper truth that they understand what it's all about. to be in a good health. ," he says.

"We are very obsessed with food and diet in this culture and people are constantly looking for advice on how to be healthy, which is good, but that's not all. what these people are selling. "

The fact that the anti-vaccination movement focuses on animals is not surprising to Smith.

"This attitude towards, I say in quotation marks," body and food purity, "is translated by people into pets because we consider pets to be part of the family," she says.

"So if you adopt the attitude of keeping your family, quote" safe "," safe ", why not extend it to your dog as well?