• Emmanuel Macron announced this Monday, after a week of debates, a vaccination obligation for caregivers and hospital professionals from the public and private from September 15. 

  • If overall, caregivers are well vaccinated, there is a big difference between doctors, who are highly vaccinated and nursing assistants in nursing homes. 

  • However, this new obligation could further fuel the anger of paramedics, already exhausted, or even encourage them to retrain. 

It will therefore be necessary to show a white paw. Finally, rather proof of valid vaccination. Emmanuel Macron announced this Monday evening that all caregivers must be vaccinated against Covid-19 before September 15. A daring bet? So, that a year ago, they paraded on the Champs-Elysées for July 14 and they are still awaiting recognition for the months of mobilization against the pandemic, today present our unvaccinated caregivers as responsible for isn't a fourth wave likely to tense them up?

“In terms of communication, we are stigmatizing caregivers by making believe that one in two is not vaccinated, tackle Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the National Union of Nursing Professionals.

It's wrong.

And this communication delights the conspiratorial spheres: "look, if even the caregivers do not get vaccinated, it is that we were right".

It is counterproductive.

"

"As if the profession became the ideal culprit"

Especially since nobody knows precisely these figures.

And especially how many, among the unvaccinated, are immune because many of them have been infected with Covid-19.

For Thierry Amouroux, to impose is to risk breaking the ripple effect.

“It will be complicated to use the exemplary argument to convince tomorrow, because we will be answered: 'you had no choice'.

Still, with the expansion of the health pass to a lot of daily activities, the French will undoubtedly have another motivation.

"Everyone thinks that carers need to be vaccinated, but the question is the method, not the end," adds Olivier Milleron, cardiologist at Bichat hospital and member of the Inter-Hospitals Collective (CIH).

The obligation is experienced as if the profession became the ideal culprit.

"

Patrick Chamboredon, president of the National Order of Nurses, on the contrary welcomes a welcome enlargement.

“These decisions are going in the right direction.

The fact of not having restricted this vaccination obligation to caregivers alone is a good thing to curb the epidemic rebound more effectively, and certainly constitutes a first step towards the expansion of the vaccination obligation that the National Order of Nurses is calling for. wishes.

"

Coming departures in the public hospital?

Another question mark: does this obligation not risk pushing some caregivers to resign, while France will badly need them this summer and even more in the event of a new wave?

Olivier Véran certainly made a round table of the Orders and Federations of caregivers last Wednesday and obtained an agreement on the vaccination obligation. “But we were not consulted on the issue, regrets Guillaume Gontard, president of the National Federation of Nursing Assistant Associations (Fnaas). We keep telling ourselves that we are the least well vaccinated, it would have been a good idea to take our opinion into account! This would have made it possible to express disagreements and concerns. This is the great problem of managing this crisis: we are excluded from everything that is strategic, while we see patients 24 hours a day. "

However, for the majority of those questioned, the risk of seeing mass resignations remains limited.

“I have the firm conviction that they will be vaccinated, reassures Jean-Marcel Mourgues, vice-president of the Order of Physicians.

Many are not antivax, but pending.

“Same nuance on the side of Thierry Amouroux, nurse.

“When you see what happened in other regions that have imposed the vaccination obligation for caregivers, it's 80 layoffs in Israel, 16 in Italy and 153 in Texas.

It is therefore very much in the minority.

"

Already departures from the public hospital

According to him, the real danger lies elsewhere.

"I do not think that people will resign because of an obligatory vaccination, but because they are exhausted by the working conditions, he qualifies.

There had already been a wave of departures last summer: we went from 7,500 vacant nursing positions in June 2020 to 35,000 September 2020. "

Indeed, for years, long before the Covid-19, hospital workers have been saying their fed up with degraded working conditions.

“We are already in a very difficult situation with beds closing due to a lack of personnel,” adds Olivier Milleron.

This obligation must not be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

"

Discouragement and exhaustion have increased after these months of battling the pandemic.

"The nurses and nursing assistants are reassigned to a service in the event of absence and recalled on their days off," underlines Maud Gelly, sociologist who worked on the report of professionals from a hospital in the Grand-Est on vaccination.

The personnel who have the least control over their working conditions would perhaps see the vaccination obligation as a final dispossession of their decision-making capacity.

“Especially since some hospitals have frozen mobility and availability ... until June 1, 2021.

Politics

Emmanuel Macron's speech: Vaccination, health pass, pension reform… The main announcements of the president

Health

Coronavirus: Why are some caregivers hesitant to get vaccinated?

Who and what sanctions?

The vaccination obligation is imposed not only on public and private caregivers, also liberal, staff of centers for disabled people, but also on non-caring hospital staff (housekeepers, reception staff, etc.), professionals and accompanying volunteers. fragile people, including at home.

said on Monday evening that from September 15, those who have not been vaccinated "will no longer be paid".

More specifically, they will see their employment contract suspended for four to six weeks, said Elisabeth Borne, Minister of Labor.

About 1.5 million people are said to be affected.

The question of verification remains unresolved: today, caregivers must be up to date with their reminders on diphtheria, tetanus and polio (DTP) and vaccinated against hepatitis B. “But the controls are rare, c ' is good to make compulsory but we need a follow-up ”, nuance Guillaume Gontard, president of the

  • Vaccination

  • Covid 19

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Coronavirus

  • Health

  • Medicine

  • Nurse