Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex.

-

Ludovic Marin / AP / SIPA

  • “Several thousand people” have been vaccinated to date in France, Olivier Véran announced on Monday.

  • The executive is widely criticized for the slowness of its vaccination plan and forced to accelerate.

  • "300 vaccination points open to health professionals" will be in place by mid-January, announces

    20 minutes

    the entourage of Gabriel Attal.

At first glance, the numbers seem cruel to the executive.

Olivier Véran assured this Monday that "several thousand people" had been vaccinated against the coronavirus to date in France, far from 265,000 in Germany or nearly 119,000 in Italy.

The executive is accused of having implemented an anti-Covid vaccine strategy that is too slow and too cautious compared to some of its European neighbors.

"We have the same number of doses that our neighbors, but we chose a different path", defended on Sunday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal in

Paris

.

The government remains on its goal of reaching a million people at risk for vaccination by February.

But criticism from the opposition and from medical staff forced him to step up, especially on the vaccination of caregivers.

Some “300 vaccination points open to health professionals” will be in place by mid-January,

Gabriel Attal's entourage

informed

20 minutes

this Monday

🗣 Slowness of the #vaccination: “It destroys me, what a form of unpreparedness! It's a state scandal.” @ JeanROTTNER, president of @regiongrandest



▶ # Les4V with @Caroline_Roux pic.twitter.com/oNUILDxiOi

- Info France 2 (@ infofrance2) January 4, 2021

"State scandal", "fiasco", "laughing stock of the developed world"

“We are pursuing a policy which has proved its failure in the past: masks, tests, vaccination today […].

I consider that today we are facing a state scandal ", blasted this Monday Jean Rottner on France 2. The president (LR) of the Grand Est region denounced" a form of lack of preparation and irresponsibility " of the government.

Criticism is taken up by all sides of the opposition.

“The government is unable to put in place simple logistics.

Our vaccination campaign is the laughing stock of the developed world!

", Tweeted RN president Marine Le Pen.

Same tone from Yannick Jadot, MEP EELV: “The vaccine strategy fiasco makes me hesitate between amateurism and incompetence, and the president acts as if it had nothing to do with it.

"

"There was a problem with slowness and communication"

At the center of criticism, Emmanuel Macron.

According to the

JDD

, the Head of State would have been annoyed by this "rhythm of family walk", and would have himself put pressure on his government.

"It must change quickly and strongly", he would have railed, blaming the slowness of the administration.

"Our technostructure is absolutely cumbersome," supports François Patriat, the boss of LREM senators and close to the Head of State.

Political and administrative officials have also been so stressed with the legal risk, immediate questioning, commissions of inquiry… that no one takes the slightest risk.

"

Faced with the controversy, the Elysee Palace announced the holding of a "working and monitoring meeting" on vaccination this Monday afternoon with Emmanuel Macron, the head of government and the ministers concerned.

The executive knows that it has no room for error and that a failure on the vaccination plan would have serious consequences in terms of health, but also political.

"What I fear is the argument:" they missed the masks, the tests and now the vaccines "on the grounds that other countries are going faster", squeaks a Macronist framework.

“I have the impression that the French administration had set itself for January 4, and had not provided for the authorization of the marketing earlier.

There was a problem with slowness and communication, ”he adds.

"300 vaccination points open to health professionals" by mid-January

The government has already rectified its initial plan, bringing the start of vaccination for caregivers forward to Monday.

“From this week, one hospital per department will offer vaccination to healthcare professionals, and by mid-January, around 300 vaccination points (some in hospitals, some in town) will be open to healthcare professionals. health ”, assures one in the entourage of Gabriel Attal.

"From February, these vaccination points will be increased and open to people over 75 years old", adds one.

To put an end to the controversy, the government is also counting on the establishment of a group of 35 citizens, responsible for monitoring the vaccination campaign, and whose draw is due to begin on Monday.

But this initiative is also widely criticized by the opposition.

François Patriat says he is confident about the medium-term vaccine strategy and is ironic: “The same people who were wary of a vaccine made in nine months a few weeks ago now want to vaccinate with all their might.

This is the French paradox: 60% do not want to be vaccinated, but 100% believe that we are not going fast enough.

"

Society

Vaccination: How does the government plan to step up the pace?

Health

Grand-Est: The slowness of the vaccination against Covid-19 is "a scandal of state" accuses the president of the region Jean Rottner

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Government

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Vaccination

  • Vaccine