Coronavirus: how to explain the mistrust of the French towards the vaccine passport?

Solution studied to allow the reopening of restaurants, cinemas, or even museums, the establishment of a vaccination passport remains viewed with suspicion by very many French people.

Invited Thursday from Europe 1, the sociologist Marie Jauffret-Roustide deciphers the springs of this hostility. 

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After more than a year of the coronavirus epidemic, cultural venues, sports halls, as well as bars and restaurants have remained closed for many months, and do not seem close to welcoming the public again.

But in some countries like Israel, the establishment of a vaccination passport has allowed its owners to regain more freedom.

However, should such a device be put in place in France?

The population is in any case reluctant, according to several opinion polls, in particular because of the sensitive issue of personal data.

Marie Jauffret-Roustide, sociologist at Inserm, deciphers this phenomenon on Europe 1. 

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For the researcher, this French reluctance vis-à-vis the vaccine passport "is mainly linked to the fact that access to vaccines is not at all the same in France and in Israel".

Also, "to speak of a vaccine passport when we have less than 10% of the population which is vaccinated would amount to introducing a very important inequality between the French on the possibility of finding a form of life before, a form of freedom". 

"The opposition to the vaccination obligation is not so important"

But if the vaccination campaign accelerated, "it is likely that we will have more and more French people who are favorable to this type of passport", indicates Marie Jauffret-Roustide, recalling that "the vaccine adhesion increased since the start of the pandemic ".

In the absence of a vaccination passport, could compulsory vaccination become an avenue?

"In France, opposition to compulsory vaccination, in fact, is not so important," recalls the sociologist.

According to a study published with Public Health France, "it concerned around 7% of French people."

Personal data management: "one of the crux of the problem"

"In France, there are already vaccines which are compulsory, so this question of compulsory vaccination already exists", underlines Marie Jauffret-Roustide, for whom current fears are above all "linked to the fact that the vaccine is recent, but also to this situation of uncertainty in which we find ourselves and which means that our benchmarks are completely jostled ".

"We have government messages that are constantly changing. At the start of the pandemic, we are told that masks are useless and all of a sudden, we all have to put on masks because it becomes a problem. very useful prevention tool, ”she said again. 

For French people opposed to the vaccine passport, the issue of personal data, health data is also at the heart of their concerns.

"This is one of the crux of the problem," confirms Marie Jauffret-Roustide.

"This is a question which is indeed essential, because it means that private operators could have access to this data. So if this type of passport were to be put in place, we must have a certain number of certainties on the way in which this data would be used and above all protected. "

"Think in terms of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit"

Also, the guest of Europe 1 believes that "the green passport, which would include both vaccination data, healing data or data on recent tests, seems much more acceptable in a period when vaccines are scarce. accessible ".

Before adding: "it is the best acceptable compromise in a situation where the French are suffering". 

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Because, recalls Marie Jauffret-Roustide, if the questions surrounding the vaccine passport are legitimate, it remains important to think in terms of the benefit-risk balance.

"In a constrained pandemic situation, we are always thinking in terms of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit. What is most interesting for individuals in a situation where our freedoms are already restricted?" , she develops.

And to conclude: "That's the whole paradox. We are in a situation where we have restricted freedoms, and we are offered a means of regaining a little freedom, but through a new form of restriction, of freedom."