Paris (AFP)
Pressure is mounting to force all caregivers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and an announcement could even be made before September, assures the government, even if such a measure is not easy to implement.
A consultation on the subject will be launched "in the coming days" with associations of local elected representatives and the presidents of parliamentary groups, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Wednesday.
"The question of the calendar" will be addressed there, developed Thursday on LCI the spokesman of the government, Gabriel Attal.
He considers possible an announcement before September, under the threat of a fourth epidemic wave due to the Delta variant.
One way to drive home the point after several warnings the previous days.
"I am, like all French people, shocked (...) when we see the epidemic reintroducing itself (...) through those whose vocation it is to protect and treat. This is not admissible, "thundered Mr. Castex in the Senate Wednesday, referring to the recent focus of infection in a nursing home in the Landes.
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If "at least 80%" of staff are not vaccinated by September, "we will pave the way for compulsory vaccination for health professionals," warned the ministers of Health Olivier Véran and Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon, in a letter to the directors of hospitals and retirement homes dated Monday.
- "I changed my mind" -
Because "only 57% of professionals of nursing homes and 64% of professionals of health establishments have received at least one dose of vaccine", underlines the Hospital Federation of France (FHF), which calls for their compulsory vaccination.
This solution is now advocated by the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council set up by the government and chaired by immunologist Alain Fischer.
"Voluntary access to vaccines, option chosen as a first-line option, has so far not brought about the expected results", recognizes this body in an opinion dated June 24.
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For its part, the High Authority for Health (HAS) "still considers that incitement and conviction are the most relevant approaches".
But if the vaccination coverage of health professionals does not progress "rapidly", "the question of the vaccination obligation will have to be quickly asked", she warns in a press release Thursday.
In recent days, many professionals have spoken publicly in favor of such a measure.
"I was against the obligation" but "I changed my mind," said Wednesday on France Inter immunologist Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council which guides the government.
In nursing homes, Synerpa, one of the main federations in the sector (private nursing homes), said on Wednesday "completely in favor of compulsory vaccination".
Conversely, the AD-PA, an association which brings together directors of establishments, is opposed to it.
"We think that the vaccine is useful, but that it should not be imposed", declared Thursday its president Pascal Champvert during a press conference.
For the association, which denounces "still too great restrictions on visits and coming and going in certain establishments", it is "unacceptable that there is a link between the vaccination of caregivers and the freedom of residents".
- Go through a law -
Four vaccines are already compulsory for staff in hospitals and nursing homes: diphtheria, tetanus, polio and hepatitis B.
The obligation of vaccination against influenza has also been in law since 2005, but was suspended by decree in 2006, after the opinion of the Higher Council of Public Hygiene.
He considered that it "would risk altering the adhesion of professionals".
However, adding a new mandatory vaccine is not done in a snap, since it is necessary to go through a law.
LR senators and centrists have also tabled a bill to this effect in April.
And in addition to institutional considerations, such a decision is "very complicated" politically, told AFP Christophe Jacquinet, head of the health consulting firm Care Insight and the Health and Tech think tank.
Personally convinced of the need for vaccination, this former director of ARS (Regional Health Agency) nevertheless warns against "the false good idea" of the obligation.
According to him, it could be counterproductive in nurses and orderlies, "who already feel marginalized" in the health system and would experience this as a "negative and moralizing judgment from above".
"The hospital is destabilized by the lack of nurses, and the post-Covid crisis among nursing assistants and nurses should not be underestimated," he said.
"In the short term, the bond could be a solution, but in the medium and long term, it could cause great social damage."
© 2021 AFP