The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, insisted on Thursday on the importance of this vaccination this year, especially among the most vulnerable, due to the sharp upsurge in the coronavirus epidemic.
The flu vaccination campaign will begin "on October 13," Health Minister Olivier Véran said Thursday, stressing its increased importance this year for "vulnerable audiences" and caregivers, so as not to overburden hospitals faced with the Covid-19 epidemic.
"We must be extremely careful with the vaccination of vulnerable groups and caregivers," he told the Senate committee of inquiry into the health management of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The minister acknowledged that the too low vaccination rate among health professionals was a "real issue".
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Make the vaccine compulsory for healthcare workers
Many voices, including the National Academy of Medicine, have demanded that the influenza vaccine be made compulsory for healthcare workers, to reduce the risk of saturation of hospital services by the addition of cases of severe influenza to cases of Covid-19.
"The obligation would pass, I think, by law, I am not even sure that if we wanted to do it, we would have the time within the allotted time", replied Olivier Véran.
"For the first time, in addition to orders from pharmacies, we have secured state orders and we have 30% more vaccine doses than in previous years," he said, however.
He also explained that "the conclusions of the flu episode in the southern hemisphere" could give hope for an epidemic later than other years and less virulent, thanks in particular to the increased practice of barrier gestures due to the epidemic of Covid-19.