Italy lives what happens when politicians embrace anti-Vaxxers

The movement of the five stars of Italy, founded by a man who called HIV a hoax, campaigning against mandatory vaccinations before the country's elections in March – and won. Last month, party leaders passed a law ending compulsory vaccinations for children attending public schools.

The new law has made Italy the darling of the global anti-vaxxer movement. But Today, the country is fighting to stop a measles epidemic that has already infected thousands of people, and Europe records its largest number of cases in a decade – an inevitable and predictable outcome of anti-vaccine policies and speeches.

"Europe is now a good example of what happens when immunization coverage is down," said Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.

The efforts of Five Star and its far-right partner, the League, have particularly complicated the global campaign against measles, a highly contagious virus that is often spread among children and can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis. The World Health Organization has set the goal for Europe to eliminate the disease by 2015. Instead, about 41,000 people on the continent were infected in the first six months of this year. year.

Even a slight decline in the vaccination rate of a population can have disastrous effects: countries need a coverage rate of at least 95% to be free of measles. So when fewer people get vaccinated, kids get sick.

"We have this terrible self-inflicted injury where you are reversing the progress of public health in Europe and the United States," said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

Five Star and the League have sometimes focused on eliminating mandatory vaccinations to allow parents to make their own health decisions, rather than limiting vaccinations in the country. And Luigi Di Maio, current leader of the Five Star party, recently tried to silence anti-vaccine conspiracies.

But the rhetoric and proposals of other party personalities and their allies are much more radical. Paola Taverna, one of the top officials of the Star, last month supported dangerous "measles festivals" where children gather to contaminate and develop their immunity. League party leader Matteo Salvini described mandatory vaccinations as "unnecessary and in many dangerous cases" in June. Some party candidates and senior officials went further, mistakenly claiming that vaccines cause autism and referring to state-funded vaccination as "free genocide".

The rhetoric of these politicians goes in the direction of anti-vaccine groups who develop conspiracies and oppose vaccination in the calls for personal choice and pseudoscience. "They use these bogus terms that really do not make sense … like medical freedom and choice of vaccine," Hotez said. "What else? [anti-vaccine] groups doing it are depriving children of basic rights. "

In just over three months in power, Five Star and the League have pursued the goals of a small but very active anti-vaccine community.

Just a year ago, Italy seemed poised to solve its measles epidemic. The previous government of the country passed a law that requires children to receive 10 vaccinations to attend public schools.

The law has received support from infectious disease experts from the World Health Organization and Italian doctors, but has been fiercely opposed to the well-organized anti-vaccine movement in Europe.

"This is quantitatively a very small group, but qualitatively, they are noisy and very, very aggressive," said Walter Ricciardi, president of the Italian National Institute of Health.

Anti-vaccine protesters attacked the government deputies outside the Italian parliament. They held rallies in the streets of Rome. A group of 130 families wrote to the Italian president to assert ask for asylum in Austria to avoid vaccinations. At an event organized by Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin, activists shouted that she was killing children.

Important International anti-vaxxer organizations, a network made up of activists and even disgraced doctors, have turned to Italy as a symbol of resistance and messages on anti-vaxx forums have made the news. praise of the demonstrations. The league and five-star parties took advantage of the unrest and criticized the law as overtaking the government.

"The law was good and it worked, so key leaders on both sides made unscientific comments about vaccines," Ricciardi said.

Critics say the stopping of the epidemic has become less important for Five Star and the League than for appealing to the anti-constitutional sentiment that propelled the ruling parties.

"They wanted the votes of anti-vaxists and people who consider the compulsory vaccination law as a violation of individual freedoms," said Stefano Zona, doctor of infectious diseases and member of IoVaccino, an Italian non-profit organization. lucrative.

"They feed the anti-vaxxer movement," he said.

The United States has also experienced several major measles outbreaks in recent years. led by anti-vaccine activists and linked to lower vaccination rates in some communities. And American politicians are not much more constrained than their Italian counterparts to fuel vaccine skepticism. President Donald Trump interrogates Vaccine safety during a Republican presidential debate in 2015 and spent years promoting anti-vaxxer conspiracies.