Boulevard Vincent Auriol, in Paris, Wednesday, November 11, 2020 (illustration) -

JEANNE ACCORSINI / SIPA

  • On Facebook, the photo of a press article relating to the vaccination obligation arouses strong reactions.

  • According to him, the state of health emergency would allow the government to force every citizen to be vaccinated even if they oppose it.

  • But the extract in question is taken from a Quebec newspaper.

    If some vaccines are mandatory in France, refusing them exposes, at worst, to criminal penalties.

“Let them try, and we will see the uprising […].

80% of the French do not want it "," revolution "," dictatorship "... On Facebook, the extract from a newspaper article evoking the vaccine obligation arouses as much rejection as indignation.

It must be said that regardless of the sensitive nature of the subject - public mistrust vis-à-vis vaccines being very strong - the article photographed is surprising.

The misleading Facebook post on the vaccine obligation.

- screenshot / Facebook

To the question "can the government force me to receive a vaccine?"

", The text responds as follows:" Yes, if he declares a state of health emergency.

By Mr. Arruda's admission, that was never done.

"And we hope we never do," he said.

If you refuse, a judge can compel you and if he has reason to believe that you will not obey, he can even order that you be taken to a specific place to be vaccinated.

"

However, a certain number of Internet users wonder about the source of this article.

With good reason, since it is taken from a Quebec media… and therefore does not concern French legislation.

FAKE OFF

These questions and answers were indeed published last March in the

Journal de Montréal

, as can be seen in the digital version of this article.

In addition to the extract in question, there are other responses from Dr. Horacio Arruda, who is none other than the National Director of Public Health (DSP) of Quebec.

And although this photo has resurfaced in recent days on social networks - thanks to the announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech of a vaccine against Covid-19 effective at 90% and then statements by EELV MEP Yannick Jadot on the benefit of compulsory vaccination against the virus?

-, it was circulating there since last spring.

🖼 Pictures & Debate


📣 Can the government force me to receive a vaccine?


🗣 What do you think?

pic.twitter.com/sRx6tOrecq

- AKINA (@akina_schira) May 17, 2020

In France, if the state of health emergency has been extended until February 16, 2021, it does not modify the legislation in force on vaccines.

Some are recommended and others mandatory in children, especially against tetanus and diphtheria.

But, while the refusal of vaccination still exposed, a few years ago, to six months in prison and a 3,750 euro fine, this sanction provided for in the Public Health Code was removed by Agnès Buzyn shortly after her arrival at Ministry of Health.

In practice - and although the Constitutional Council recognized in 2015 the obligation to vaccinate children as being in conformity with "the constitutional requirement of health protection" -, the State cannot therefore oblige the refractory to be vaccinated.

However, they take the risk of seeing their child refused at the nursery or in any reception structure if he has not completed one of the eleven compulsory vaccines.

Other criminal penalties remain in force

And the refusal of vaccination always exposes to penal sanctions in a very specific case, as recalled by Agnès Buzyn in 2017: "Parents are supposed to protect their children, and therefore if a child one day legally turns against his parents because 'he has a handicap, because he was not vaccinated [...], well if this child [...] has the right to criminalize his parents.

And there, the parents are likely to have two years of imprisonment and 30,000 euros in fines.

"

For its part, the government site makes it clear that "compromising the health of one's child, or that of having contaminated other children with diseases that could have been avoided by vaccination, could always be the subject of of criminal proceedings ”.

Without forgetting the case of "parents or [of] doctors who make false medical certificates or mention false vaccinations in the child's health record", an offense punishable, again, by imprisonment and a substantial fine.

In the specific case of the current epidemic, the High Health Authority for its part considered that, "in the current context, vaccination against Covid-19 should not be compulsory, neither for the general population, nor for health professionals ”.

This would not be, in his eyes, justified because of a "poorly known vaccine delivery schedule and lack of perspective on future vaccines as well as their ability to limit the contagion of the virus."

Society

Coronavirus: No, you do not risk being imprisoned without being tried because of the law on the state of health emergency

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