The Scientific Council recommends a health pass only "on a temporary and exceptional basis".
This proof of vaccination or of a negative coronavirus test would allow a certain "return to normal life".
A health pass ensuring that a person is vaccinated against Covid-19 or has had a negative test can be used to facilitate the "return to normal life", provided that it is "in a temporary and exceptional way", estimates Tuesday the Scientific Council.
"The health pass, used on a temporary and exceptional basis, can allow the population a form of return to normal life by minimizing the risks of contamination by the Sars-CoV-2 virus", concludes the government council in a notice sent Monday evening to the government and made public Tuesday.
"Technical, practical, ethical questions"
When announcing the timetable for the gradual lifting of the restriction measures on Thursday, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron considered that it would be "absurd not to use" a health pass system "in the places where the crowds, such as stadiums, festivals, fairs or exhibitions ”.
This pass, in paper or digital format, would attest to the recent completion of a negative screening test, the administration of a vaccine against Covid-19 or an old infection by the virus.
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Such a tool makes it possible "to consider reopening and resuming, by controlling the health risk without it being possible to affirm that the latter is zero or very low, activities bringing together a large number of people", judges the Scientific Council.
On the other hand, its use "raises many questions of a technical, practical, ethical and public health" nature, which do not fall within its competence, he warns.
The Council does not recommend its use for "acts of daily living"
Insofar as it will use "personal data relating to the state of health, it constitutes a precedent whose effects should be limited in terms of duration and extent", adds the body chaired by Jean-François Delfraissy.
It therefore does not recommend its use for "acts of everyday life (going to the workplace, going to a business, a training establishment, a café, a restaurant)".
The Council also considers that its use does not dispense with the respect of wearing a mask when possible and sufficient ventilation of confined spaces.
On the other hand, a relaxation of the rules of physical distancing is possible.
The Scientific Council was seized Thursday on this question by the government, which tabled Monday an amendment to the bill on the exit from the state of health emergency, allowing to "subordinate the access" to certain places to such health pass.