‘Small numbers, little interest’: Mobilise through vaccination, the case of polio in France (1950-60s)
Résumé
Poliomyelitis is a disease which gained in visibility and whose incidence increased during the twentieth century. The importance and impact of the disease in the United States of America has already been well documented. Moreover, these last years, crucial works have been carried out concerning the repercussions of the disease in several European countries. Paradoxically, works on the French case are practically non-existent. A first question arises: why such a lack of interest?
Indeed, polio numbers in France (number of cases and deaths) between 1950s and 1960s are not comparable to some countries, especially the USA. Thenceforth, how to mobilise the population and the health authorities in the face of a disease which seems harmless? In this communication, we will analyse the perception of the disease in France. We will highlight the actors who mobilised against polio, and what were their interests. With epidemiological determinants less important in France than in some other countries, we will see that polio was unthinkable except in relation to vaccination, that is, as the achievement or failure of its vaccine-preventability. In fact, the historical processes by which this disease became conflated with a biotechnology of collective protection, in France, remains puzzlingly unexplored.
Within our ongoing pandemic, such a case shows that the importance given to a disease depends on a specific context, determined by medico-scientific, political, economic, or even socio-cultural determinants.