What is behind the mistrust of Covid vaccines in the French Caribbean?

The surge in Covid infections in the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe – where vaccination rates are low – comes amid deep mistrust of the government and the flow of disinformation that has left behind many people afraid of the vaccine. RFI explores why vaccine-skepticism in the French Caribbean is so entrenched.

With saturated hospitals and seriously ill people evacuated to the mainland, the health crisis in Martinique and Guadeloupe has been described as “catastrophic”.

Here, infection rates are the highest in France, far behind the French national average.

In Martinique, 22% of people received a first dose, against 31% in neighboring Guadeloupe. This is a paltry figure compared to nearly 70% of the French population.

“People in intensive care are not vaccinated; people who die from Covid-19 are not vaccinated, “Professor Serge Romana, who is in daily contact with health workers on the islands, told RFI.

Anti-vaxx culture?

Traditional medicine is popular in the French Caribbean, where plants such as lion’s ear, portugal blue, mountain mint and sage are used to treat everything from stress and high blood pressure to respiratory problems and has the flu.

There is a strong belief that plants can protect against the coronavirus by boosting natural immunity.

Sales of Virapic, a syrup made from the local bitter jackass herb, have skyrocketed since it was touted in February as a “miracle cure” for Covid.

“I don’t want to stigmatize, but mistrust of vaccines is cultural,” said French Overseas Minister Sebastian Lecornu, who led a team of 300 medical reinforcements in the islands last week.

Guadeloupe and Martinique were among the first French departments to file a complaint against the regional health authorities who refused to stock up on the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine, which has proved ineffective in the treatment of Covid.

The preference for homemade solutions, however, reflects a much deeper mistrust in the government’s ability to deal with health crises – dating back to the chlordecone scandal that rocked the French West Indies between 1972 and 1993.

A pesticide, chlordecone has been used to grow bananas in Guadeloupe and Martinique long after it was banned in mainland France due to its impact on human health and the environment.

A study carried out in 2018 by the public health agency Santé Publique France showed that almost all the inhabitants of the islands had chlordecone in their blood. Several court cases are in progress.

“They told us it was okay to drink the water, and we later found out that the state had lied to us,” a caller from Guadeloupe recently told public radio. “How can you expect us to trust the government? ”

Mistrust of state institutions

The scandal has further fueled a history of poor relations between local politicians and the central government, with some Caribbean leaders actively campaigning against Covid vaccines.

“Not getting vaccinated has become a cause for nationalists and patriots,” Dr Gérard Cotellon, head of the CHU de Guadeloupe, told RFI. “They are pushing Guadeloupe pharmacology.”

At the end of July, the Martinican authorities voted overwhelmingly against extending the use of the Covid “sanitary pass” – a document required in French restaurants and other public places to prove that a person has been vaccinated or has sufficient immunity against the virus.

Both Martinique and Guadeloupe have seen large protests against the laissez-passer and compulsory vaccination for health workers.

Fake news

The climate of mistrust has allowed conspiracy theories to flourish on the internet and social networks.

When Jacob Desvarrieux, singer of the Guadeloupe group Kassav, recently died of Covid despite having received three doses of vaccination, rumors were rife that it was possible to die of a vaccine overdose.

“It’s not very reassuring; the vaccine is intended to protect vulnerable people, ”local woman Lyssandre told FranceInfo radio.

Desvarrieux was left immunocompromised after a liver transplant, and Covid vaccines are known to be less effective in these patients.

In Martinique, a 40-year-old woman showed RFI a video of a man in a white coat showing graphics claiming that Covid-19 was made in France by inserting four sequences of the HIV virus into RNA genetic material.

She said she was worried about having a vaccine that could give her AIDS.

“The fake news explains the very low vaccination rate here,” explains Christian Rapha, biologist and mayor of Saint-Pierre, a town in Martinique.

“It’s not about culture or illiteracy; people are worried and have questions.

The pandemic is coming late

Martinique and Guadeloupe have been largely spared from the pandemic until recently, information on the virus and the benefits of vaccination being slow to arrive.

“The vaccination campaign is poorly understood and is sometimes perceived as a sort of condemnation pronounced from Paris,” explains Pierre Olivier of RFI, who recently reported from the islands.

Doctors and scientists say the vaccination campaign in the French Caribbean must be independent of politicians if it is to gain people’s trust.

“We are organizing a kind of war machine – a vast science-based information enterprise,” says Dr Romana.

He and others have increased appearances in local and national media, and held webinars and meetings to answer questions about the virus.

The message is to show people that outside of lockdown, there is no proven way to fight Covid-19 other than vaccination, says Romana.

Driven by fear

France’s health ministry said the vaccination rate had increased following Lecornu’s visit earlier this month and his call for people to receive the vaccine.

With 346 deaths in Guadeloupe and 243 in Martinique, the fear of dying is beginning to prevail over the fear of the vaccine.

“People are just scared,” a pharmacist in Fort-de-France, Martinique, told FranceInfo. “Even doctors who did not trust the vaccine now want to be vaccinated. “

Martinique’s Medical Council, a regulatory body, warned this week that doctors who publicly express anti-vaccine views face disciplinary action, including the threat of being “struck off.” .

Such opinions were in violation of the code of medical ethics, said the chairman of the board, Raymond Hélénon.

“It’s not good for your health. Doctors need to speak with one voice.