The ICOVAC project

The creation of the SHS Vaccination France network was part of the ICOVAC-France project (Impact du Covid-19 sur la vaccination en France) funded by the ANRS-Maladies Infectieuses Emergentes. The project is coordinated by Patrick Peretti-Watel (sociologist, INSERM, Unité des Virus Emergents) and Jeremy K. Ward (sociologist, INSERM, CERMES3).

The ICOVAC project has two main objectives:

  • In the coming years, we will monitor and document the vaccine issues surrounding Covid-19 ;
  • Study the impact of this crisis on attitudes and behaviors towards vaccination in general and towards other existing or future vaccines.

The project has four main focuses

  • The first strand looks at contemporary vaccination issues in the general population.
  • The second focuses on collective mobilization and public debate around these issues.
  • while the third focuses on healthcare professionals.
  • Lastly, the fourth strand brings together actions aimed at structuring SHS research on vaccine issues: the creation and coordination of the SHS Vaccination France network are part of this strand.

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Research on the human and social aspects of vaccination in France since Covid-19

1st edition 

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Strand 1

The first line of research in the ICOVAC project will look at contemporary vaccine issues in the general population, by examining the potential impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the French public’s relationship with vaccines. The aim is to study public attitudes and behaviour in relation to these issues, using a variety of approaches (questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews, documentary sources, etc.).

Notes

Publications

  • P Peretti-Watel, L Fressard, B Giry, P Verger, J.K. Ward, Social Stigma and COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal in France, Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-11186095
  • J.K. Ward, F Gauna, M Deml, N MacKendrick, P Peretti-Watel, Endorsement of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and vaccine attitudes: A representative cross-sectional study in France, Social Science & Medicine, Vol 7, N°1, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115952
  • JK Ward, S Cortaredona, H Touzet, F Gauna, P Peretti-Watel, Explaining political differences in attitudes to vaccines in France: partisan cues, disenchantment with politics and political sophistication, psyarxiv, 10.31234/osf.io/5mbnf, 2023.
  • E Schultz, J Mancini, JK Ward, What does the French public consider to be a conflict of interest for medical researchers?, Social Science & Medicine, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115851
  • CJ McKinley, E Olivier, JK Ward, The Influence of Social Media and Institutional Trust on Vaccine Hesitancy in France: Examining Direct and Mediating Processes, Vaccines, 11(8), 1319, 2023.  https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11081319
  • A Gagneux-Brunon, E Botelho-Nevers, P Verger, F Gauna, O Launay, JK Ward, Change in self-perceived vaccine confidence in France after the COVID-19 vaccination campaign: A cross-sectional survey in the French general population, Health Policy and Technology, in press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2023.100812
  • JK Ward, Politisation et rapports ordinaires aux vaccins: Premiers enseignements de l’épidémie de Covid-19, L’Année Sociologique, 2(73), 267-294, 2023. DOI : 10.3917/anso.232.0267.
  • Khouri C., A Larabi, P Verger, F Gauna, JL Cracowski, JK Ward, Exploring the feelings of being at risk of vaccine related adverse effects: A cross-sectional survey in France, Journal of Psychosomatic Research 172, 111433, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111433
  • JK Ward, P Peretti-Watel, E Dubé, P Verger, K Attwell, Context matters: How to research vaccine attitudes and uptake after the COVID-19 crisis, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics 20 (1), 2367268, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2024.2367268
  • JK Ward, S Cortaredona, H Touzet, F Gauna, P Peretti-Watel, Explaining Political Differences in Attitudes to Vaccines in France: Partisan Cues, Disenchantment with Politics and Political Sophistication, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 11373758, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-11373758
  • G Khoury, JK Ward, J Mancini, A Gagneux-Brunon, LB Luong Nguyen, Health Literacy and Health Care System Confidence as Determinants of Attitudes to Vaccines in France: Representative Cross-Sectional Study, JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 10, e45837, 2024. doi:10.2196/45837
  • P Peretti-Watel, P Verger, JK Ward, To understand mRNA vaccine hesitancy, stop calling the public anti-science, Nature Medicine 30 (4), 923-924, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-02816-y
  • É Schultz, JK Ward, L Atlani-Duault, Public perception of scientific advisory bodies: the case of France’s Covid-19 Scientific Council, Science and public policy 51 (2), 236-246, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scad067

Strand 2

Because the public emergence of vaccine controversies and the politicisation of these debates are among the main determinants of attitudes towards vaccines, a second strand of the study examines the evolution of mobilisations and debates around vaccines in France.

The influenza A(H1N1) vaccination campaign was a turning point in the evolution of critical mobilisations around vaccines in France. The event attracted a whole new range of vaccine-critical actors to the issue of vaccines. This reshaping of the landscape of vaccine criticism has resulted in a decade of controversy in the mainstream media over vaccine safety (use of aluminium adjuvants, HPV vaccine, multivalent vaccines, etc.). Will the COVID-19 epidemic, by putting vaccines at the heart of the media and political agenda as never before, constitute a similar or even more important turning point? The work in this area will involve tracking the evolution of vaccine-related debates and mobilisations in a number of ways (ethnography of the anti-health pass movement, monitoring debates on social networks, longitudinal analysis of media coverage).

Publications

No published paper yet. Selection of papers published by the team before the launch of ICOVAC:

  • Faccin M., F Gargiulo, L Atlani-Duault, JK Ward, Assessing the influence of French vaccine critics during the two first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Plos One 4 (17), 2022. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271157
  • Ward J.K., Gauna F., Gagneux-Brunon A., Botelho-Nevers E., Cracowski J-L., Khouri C., Launay O., Verger P., Peretti-Watel P., The French health pass holds lessons for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, Nature Medicine, 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01661-7
  • Ward J.K., Peretti-Watel P., Bocquier A., Seror V., Verger P., Vaccine hesitancy and coercion: all eyes on France, Nature Immunology, 20, 2019.DOI: 10.1038/s41590-019-0488-9
  • Cafiero F., Guille-Escuret P., Ward J.K., “I’m not an antivaxxer, but…”: Spurious and authentic diversity among vaccine critical activists, Social Networks, 65, pp. 63-70, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2020.11.004
  • Ward J.K., Journalists and Science: Boundary-making in the media coverage of the 2009 pandemic flu vaccine’s safety in France, Sociologie, 4, 10. 2019. https://journals.openedition.org/sociologie/6020

Strand 3

Strand 3 of the project focuses on healthcare workers responsible for vaccination in France and will develop three lines of research:

in the context of the expansion of the role of nurses in the vaccination of the population (April 2022) and their growing role in prevention (task-shifting), to study, using a quantitative approach, the determinants of this profession’s hesitancy to vaccinate and the extent to which this hesitancy is a form of expression of working conditions that are less and less satisfactory;

  1.  using quantitative data, the aim will be to study the role of ‘by default’ trust (the concept of reluctant trust proposed by Giddens) in vaccines among GPs and to explain the mechanisms that influence the vaccination behaviour of these professionals in relation to the other determinants of this behaviour;
  2. in the context of the expansion of the role of nurses in the vaccination of the population (April 2022) and their growing role in prevention (task-shifting), we will study, using a quantitative approach, the determinants of this profession’s hesitancy to vaccinate and the extent to which this hesitancy reflects working conditions that are less and less satisfactory;
  3. using a qualitative approach (semi-directive interviews with various healthcare workers), to study the extent to which vaccine hesitancy among certain healthcare workers is an expression of conflicts with institutional players (health authorities, national health insurance fund, etc.) and would fall within the scope of the politicisation of vaccination, is indicative of their relationship with science and scientists, and, finally, the extent to which these various potential determinants have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Publications

  • C Cogordan, L Fressard, L Ramalli, S Rebaudet, P Malfait, A Dutrey-Kaiser, Y Attalah, D Roy,P Berthiaume, A Gagneur, P Verger, Motivational interview-based health mediator interventions increase intent to vaccinate among disadvantaged individuals, Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, 19(2), 2023. https://doi-org.ezproxy.u-paris.fr/10.1080/21645515.2023.2261687

Selection of papers published by the team before the launch of ICOVAC:

  • P Verger, D Scronias, N Dauby, KA Adedzi, C Gobert, M Bergeat, A Gagneur, E Dubé, Attitudes of healthcare workers towards COVID-19 vaccination: a survey in France and French-speaking parts of Belgium and Canada, 2020. Eurosurveillance 26, 2002047, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.3.2002047
  • P Verger, E Botelho-Nevers, A Garrison, D Gagnon, A Gagneur, A Gagneux-Brunon, E Dubé, Vaccine hesitancy in health-care providers in Western countries: a narrative review. Expert Review of Vaccines 0, 1–19, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/14760584.2022.2056026
  • Wilson R.J.I., Vergélys C., Ward J., Peretti-Watel P., Verger P., Vaccine hesitancy among general practitioners in Southern France and their reluctant trust in the health authorities, International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 15, 1, p. 1757336, 2020. DOI: 10.1080/17482631.2020.1757336
  • Raude J., Fressard L., Gautier A., Pulcini C., Peretti-Watel P., Verger P., Opening the ‘Vaccine Hesitancy’ black box: how trust in institutions affects French GPs’ vaccination practices, Expert Review of Vaccines, 15, 7, p. 937‑948, 2016. DOI: 10.1080/14760584.2016.1184092
  • Verger P., Fressard L., Collange F., Gautier A., Jestin C., Launay O., Raude J., Pulcini C., Peretti-Watel P., Vaccine Hesitancy Among General Practitioners and Its Determinants During Controversies: A National Cross-sectional Survey in France, EBioMedicine, 2, 8, p. 891‑897, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.06.018

Strand 4

Over the last four years, a great deal of research has been launched in France into the issues surrounding vaccines. The fourth pillar of the ICOVAC project aims to raise awareness of this research, bring together the researchers behind it and encourage dialogue between them – in short, to contribute to the structuring of this field of research.

Publications

No published paper yet

Funding

The ICOVAC-France project has been labeled as a National Research Priority by the National Orientation Committee for Therapeutic Trials and other researches on Covid-19 (CAPNET). The investigators would like to acknowledge ANRS | Emerging infectious diseases for their scientific support, the French Ministry of Health and Prevention and the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation for their funding and support.