Failing to have been able to convince them, the State will force them.

According to a government source, a bill is in preparation to force all caregivers to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

This source confirms this Thursday information from several regional press titles.

According to her, the bill that the executive would prepare would concern the staff of nursing homes and hospitals.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Wednesday that a consultation on the subject would be launched "in the coming days" with associations of local elected officials and the presidents of parliamentary groups.

"The question of the calendar" will be addressed there, developed Thursday on LCI the spokesman of the government, Gabriel Attal.

He considers possible an announcement before September, under the threat of a fourth epidemic wave due to the Delta variant.

Only 57% of nursing home professionals received at least one dose

“I am, like all French people, shocked (…) when we see the epidemic reintroducing itself (…) through those whose vocation it is to protect and treat.

This is not admissible, ”thundered Jean Castex in the Senate on Wednesday, referring to the recent focus of infection in a nursing home in the Landes.

If "at least 80%" of staff are not vaccinated by September, "we will pave the way for compulsory vaccination for health professionals", warn the ministers of Health Olivier Véran and of Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon , in a letter to directors of hospitals and retirement homes dated Monday.

Because "only 57% of professionals of nursing homes and 64% of professionals of health establishments have received at least one dose of vaccine", underlines the Hospital Federation of France (FHF), which calls for their compulsory vaccination.

Considered in September in Parliament?

According to

Le Parisien

,

Sud Ouest

or

Le Progrès

, the law could be examined in Parliament by the end of July, but more likely in September in view of the incompressible legal deadlines. This mandatory targeted vaccination is now advocated by the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council set up by the government and chaired by immunologist Alain Fischer.

"Voluntary access to vaccines, the option chosen as a first-line option, has so far not brought about the expected results", recognizes this body in an opinion dated June 24.

For its part, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) “still considers that incitement and conviction are the most relevant approaches”.

But if the immunization coverage of health professionals does not progress "rapidly", "the question of compulsory vaccination should be quickly asked," she warns in a press release Thursday.

" I changed my mind "

In recent days, many professionals have spoken publicly in favor of such a measure.

"I was against the obligation" but "I changed my mind", declared Wednesday on France Inter the immunologist Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council which guides the government.

In nursing homes, Synerpa, one of the main federations in the sector (private nursing homes), said Wednesday “completely in favor of compulsory vaccination”.

Conversely, the AD-PA, an association which brings together directors of establishments, is opposed to it.

"We think that the vaccine is useful, but that it should not be imposed", declared Thursday its president Pascal Champvert during a press conference.

A counterproductive obligation for nurses and caregivers?

Four vaccines are already compulsory for the staff of hospitals and nursing homes: diphtheria, tetanus, polio and hepatitis B. The obligation of vaccination against influenza has also been included in the law since 2005, but was suspended by decree in 2006, after the opinion of the Higher Council of Public Hygiene. He believed that it “would risk impairing the support of professionals”. LR senators and centrists have already tabled a bill to this effect in April. It did not succeed.

In addition to institutional considerations, such a decision is "very complicated" politically, Christophe Jacquinet, head of the health consulting firm Care Insight and the think tank Health and Tech. Personally convinced of the need for vaccination, this former director of ARS (Regional Health Agency) nevertheless warns against "the false good idea" of the obligation. According to him, it could be counterproductive for nurses and caregivers, "who already feel marginalized" in the health system and would experience this as "negative and moralizing judgment from above". "The hospital is destabilized by the lack of nurses, and the post-Covid crisis should not be underestimated among nursing assistants and nurses," he said. “In the short term, the obligation could be a solution,but in the medium and long term, it could cause great social damage ”.

Politics

Coronavirus: Mandatory vaccination of caregivers could be announced before September, according to Gabriel Attal

Society

Vaccination compulsory in September for caregivers if less than 80% have received a dose

  • Covid 19

  • Hospital

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Vaccination

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccine

  • Obligations

  • Ehpad

  • Health

  • Nurse