How anti-vax went viral

France is losing the fight against anti-vaccine campaigners online. France’s struggles with the diffusion of anti-vaccine beliefs are symptoms of a broad transformation in how people get, vet, and share information online. For Lucie Guimier — a doctorate in geopolitics who has researched France’s anti-vaccine movement — 2009’s H1N1 “swine flu” epidemic represented a turning point. “It was the first flu in the era of social media, and it was poorly managed in France,” she said, adding that the cure led to cases of narcolepsy. “This revived fears about vaccines. The internet then helped connect anti-vaccine people, creating an echo chamber, which has allowed for the amplification of a movement that was before dispersed to this or that village.”