Paris (AFP)

For a year, they have been on the front line facing the Covid.

However, many caregivers in structures for the elderly remain reluctant to be vaccinated, for "lack of information" or "hindsight".

Marie, 48, is a nurse in an institution for the elderly near Paris.

Tuesday, she spent her morning injecting the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to about thirty residents of her structure.

Average age: 90 years old.

"I was not reassured," she told AFP.

"I find that we still have little information on the vaccine and its consequences. It is my responsibility that is at stake."

This caregiver is not yet 50 years old and cannot be vaccinated.

But she still thought about this possibility and it is: "no, no way".

"I find the speed of the vaccine implementation weird, I don't want to be a guinea pig," she admits.

According to several nursing homes federations interviewed by AFP, around 20% of caregivers want to be vaccinated, against 56% of the population according to a recent Odoxa poll for France Info and Le Figaro.

Marie assures us: the majority of her colleagues think like her.

"We talk a lot about vaccination at the moment and we all agree. Besides, we said to each other that if we were forced to one day, we would put physiological serum in the syringes."

- Fake news -

For Annabelle Vêques, director of the National Federation of Associations of Directors of Establishments and Services for the Elderly (Fnadepa), we must "leave time".

"There are fears that are legitimate and also false information circulating. We have to fight them with scientific data and education," she said.

At the beginning of January, Fnadepa questioned its 1,200 member establishments on the vaccination campaign.

From the 307 responses received, she calculated that 25% of professionals and 65% of residents wanted to be vaccinated.

At the association of directors in the service of the elderly (AD-PA), the figures are similar: "between 60 and 80% for residents and 20 to 30% for professionals", told AFP the director Romain Gizolme.

"On the whole the staff say no because there is a lot of mistrust around the vaccine", notes Malika Belarbi, nursing assistant and head of the national collective CGT for the reception of the elderly.

The trade unionist recently questioned caregivers: "some say they need a few months of hindsight, others are afraid of side effects and others have lost all confidence in what the government is saying".

The Minister Delegate in charge of Autonomy said on Tuesday that "20% of staff accepting vaccination" was not "sufficient".

"We must resolve this problem" in order to be able to "create a cordon sanitaire around the elderly," added Brigitte Bourguignon, noting that in hospitals, vaccination is "better accepted".

"I am struck to see how caregivers in nursing homes refuse to be vaccinated", also reacted on classic Radio Professor Didier Sicard, former president of the National Consultative Ethics Committee.

He judged "ethically shocking to refuse to be vaccinated when you are a caregiver".

- Risk-benefit -

“Among caregivers there is everything, and therefore people who doubt,” nuance Ghislaine Sicre, president of Convergence Infirmière.

"They are not anti-vax or conspirators. They will not go against the vaccination for the patients, it is more for them."

This is evidenced by the low rate of vaccination coverage against seasonal influenza among caregivers: 35% in health establishments and 32% in nursing homes in 2019.

Can this reluctance compromise the vaccine strategy against Covid?

For immunologist Morgane Bomsel, research director at CNRS, there is no need "to give everything to caregivers, who already do a lot".

"We should not praise too much the civic aspect of the vaccine, everyone must be able to weigh their + risk-benefit +. On the other hand, we have a duty to protect people at risk with the few doses that we have," said she told AFP.

© 2021 AFP