The issue of the adverse effects of anti-Covid vaccines is so much a subject of political and media denial that it has become a veritable taboo. The chronology shows that there was first a phase of uncertainty (first part of 2021) during which the government's main concern was to cover up the "AstraZeneca affair" and pave the way for mRNA vaccines. Then, as the summer of 2021 approached, the government's desire to vaccinate the entire population and its vote to make vaccination compulsory on pain of social exclusion meant that debate and questioning disappeared in favour of a single discourse touting the "scientifically proven" efficacy and safety of mRNA vaccines and demonising all criticism through the infamous figure of the "anti-vax". The article recounts and analyses this media-political construct, highlighting the complicity of the political authorities with the medical profession and the lack of independence of the public “Authority for Health” agency (Haute Autorité de Santé). It also notes that the doctors promoted as the best 'experts' by the government, and who were omnipresent in the media, hadn’t in fact a good command of the scientific information available. Lastly, the article questions the vaccine ideology that has prevailed in France since the early days of the Third Republic, which divides the world into two enemy camps (pro- and anti-vax), moralizes and politicizes vaccination, lumps very different pharmaceutical products together in the same magic word, makes it impossible to calmly assess the benefit-risk balance and considers the question of adverse effects as a fundamentally insignificant issue. Key words: Covid-19 ; Vaccines ; Side effects ; Public health ; Vaccine hesitancy ; Pro-vax ideology ; Politicization of health.