Paris (AFP)

Should the Covid-19 vaccine be made compulsory?

The debate agitates specialists but stems from a broader fear: that the vaccination will end up reaching an insufficient level this summer.

"+ Obligation + is not a bad word when it comes to vaccinating against Covid-19", estimated Tuesday the Academy of Medicine, which considers it necessary to put this measure in place gradually.

The reasoning is above all mathematical: "Even if the deliveries of vaccines make it possible to maintain a rhythm of 600,000 injected doses per day, the dynamism of the campaign will come up against the obstacle of the hesitant and those opposed to vaccination, the importance of these two recalcitrant categories being currently estimated at 15% for each of them ".

"It will be very difficult to obtain a vaccination coverage rate before the end of the summer which would ensure sufficient collective immunity to control the epidemic, ie 90% of the adult population or 80% of the total population (children included) ", fears the Academy.

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His proposal, however, is not unanimous.

"Making a vaccine mandatory could paradoxically be a brake on vaccine adhesion," said Benoît Elleboode, the boss of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Wednesday on France Bleu Gironde.

"You know how the French are: you just have to tell them that something is obligatory to find that there is something fishy behind," he argued.

And on the government side, AFP is told that there is "no change in the position" on the obligation.

- "Move towards" -

Beyond this only question, arises that of a possible glass ceiling for vaccination.

It will be officially open to everyone on May 31, after the gradual lifting of the age or state of health conditions in force at the start of the campaign at the end of December.

So far, the government has achieved its objectives: that of 20 million injections in mid-May, undoubtedly before that of 30 million in mid-June.

But after?

In the categories which are already entitled to vaccination, in particular the older people, "one begins to arrive more and more on the population of the skeptics", one recognizes with the ministry for Health.

However, "we cannot resolve that 20% of those over 75 have not yet been vaccinated," we say in the entourage of the Prime Minister.

The slogan is therefore clear: we must seek out those who are entitled to vaccination, to limit the number of unvaccinated as much as possible.

A strategy that the executive summarizes by the formula "Go to".

"We are continuing this policy of + Going towards + systematic, and we go down by age group," explains the Ministry of Health.

"At the moment, we are over 65: we call each person for whom we have contact via Health Insurance, to facilitate their access to vaccination by all possible and imaginable means", adds- one from the same source.

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"We called on the prefects, ARS, elected officials, vaccination centers to put in place a + last kilometer + strategy" to bring vaccination to people, it is also said in the entourage of Jean Castex.

- Eating from the heart -

For example, in the Somme, the authorities have set up "a program with the Restos du Coeur to support the beneficiaries of food distribution, and in particular the elderly, in making appointments" for vaccination, according to the Ministry.

Another concern, that of the summer holidays, which should not become a brake on vaccination.

It is necessary "to avoid at all costs that the French do not postpone their first injection because they anticipate difficulties to make their second", underlines the Ministry of Health, which therefore advocates "flexibility".

On the one hand, there could be "a little relaxation on the question of the spacing between the two doses", to avoid that the second "falls exactly in the middle of the holidays".

On the other hand, the ministry wants there to be "additional doses in a number of tourist places" so that vacationers can receive their second injection, after having had the first where they live.

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Finally, the last lever could be the upcoming vaccination of adolescents.

According to the Ministry of Health, the European Medicines Agency "should decide (at) the end of the week" on a possible authorization of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in 12-16 year olds.

In the process, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) will say whether this vaccine can be administered in France to teenagers aged 16 to 18, or even 12 to 16 years old.

© 2021 AFP