Olivier Véran, Minister of Health, meets with hospital caregivers mobilized in supporting Covid-19 patients -

SYSPEO / SIPA

  • The executive has repeatedly blamed caregivers this week, finding them too slow to get vaccinated.

  • This is not the first time that the government has released small spikes towards the health corps, but they are multiplying.

  • A rather risky strategy in the face of professions as essential as they are popular.

In recent days, the government's tackles towards caregivers have been increasing.

This Thursday evening, Prime Minister Jean Castex directly designated them as being partly responsible for the slowness of vaccination in France.

“Only one in three caregivers is vaccinated today.

This is not normal, ”he attacked.

A few hours earlier, a source from the executive leaked that Emmanuel Macron had declared in the Health Defense Council: "You are nice, but as long as you have vaccines in the fridges, I will not reconfine people.

Little by little, more and more leaks in the press are stinging caregivers.

The President of the Republic has himself been described by several of the members of the Elysée Palace as being better informed about the coronavirus than scientific experts, and for several weeks now, the Scientific Council has suffered media attacks from all sides by the executive, considered too soft, too cautious, too alarmist.

Strong tackles, little appreciated

New step this week therefore, with criticisms this time concerning all caregivers, doctors in mind.

A logical continuation in the 2022 strategy of Emmanuel Macron according to Stéphane Rozès, political scientist and president of CAP (Advice, analyzes and perspectives): "He wants to show that he is empowered by intermediary bodies, reluctance and resistance, to make decisions alone and against the grain.

"By criticizing the Scientific Council and now doctors, Emmanuel Macron" seeks to free himself from health and to separate politics and health, or even to oppose them.

It is no longer he who makes decisions by consulting scientists, as in the first wave, it is he who decides even against the advice of scientists.

He becomes sole master on board.

"

This desire to separate politics and health "does not make sense.

The economy, the social, the policy cannot do without a good health situation ”, proclaims Jérôme Marty, president of the French union for a free medicine (UFML).

According to him, the many allusions to caregivers obsessed with confinement were already going badly in the medical world.

But things got worse with the spikes on vaccination.

He testifies: “From this Monday, the first criticisms were heard on a supposedly too slow rhythm of the vaccination of the doctors… While the latter had had two days to do it!

[Thursday and Friday of the previous week].

There is anger among doctors over the government's objectionable comments.

"

Bad transmitters

Words that pass even less well because of the transmitters.

Basically, the president of the UFML is also in favor of vaccination of all caregivers.

But in the mouths of the government, a not-so-distant past weighs heavily.

Jérôme Marty is enraged: “The same people who sent us to the front during the first wave without masks and with garbage bag overcoats are now teaching us how to protect ourselves and our patients.

"

And the government explanations are also part of the anger of the caregivers: "To blame ourselves for the slowness of the vaccination, while everyone knows the shortages of doses, things are going very badly.

The state is discarding us, but let it play its part and provide us with doses of vaccines.

We will vaccinate ”, does not budge the doctor.

A risky strategy

Isn't this communication strategy risky when you know the popularity of caregivers acquired with the health crisis?

An Odoxa poll revealed in mid-April 2020, in the midst of the first wave, that healthcare staff had 97% positive opinions from the population.

The government received 64% mistrust.

Does the executive engage in a popularity war that it is certain to lose?

"It is a risky strategy and the government is fully aware of it," notes Stéphane Rozès.

This is why he does not risk frontal attacks, but more or less concealed spikes.

Even if this popularity of caregivers can do the business of

Emmanuel Macron's

storytelling

according to the political scientist: a president alone against all, who takes unpopular decisions, in the hope that they will pay off.

Our file on the anti-Covid vaccine

This communication is all the more dangerous for the executive as the caregivers have acquired a strong media response with the crisis.

Stéphane Rozès paints a portrait of this population more influential than ever: “Their words are very listened to, and they are an authority figure.

In addition, by being at the heart of vaccination, they are in direct contact with the population.

"For Jérôme Marty, despite the government's desire to separate politics and health, the 2022 election will be clearly" placed under the sign of health.

We will not forget what they did with the public hospital, nor their spades.

Caregivers will not forget the plastic bag gowns.

And the people will not forget either.

“Playing with caregivers, we sometimes end up getting stung.

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