• In a letter sent on June 28 to directors of hospitals and retirement homes, Olivier Véran indicated that if "at least 80%" of staff are not vaccinated by September, the government would pave the way for the obligation. vaccine.

  • Failing to convince, the idea of ​​forcing healthcare workers to be vaccinated to limit the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic has gained ground within the political class.

  • Also supported by a large part of public opinion according to several polls, this measure remains politically risky.

Will caregivers be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19? If the calendar is not yet set in stone, this possibility seems more and more likely. And the government wants to go fast. "If there is a law, I would like it to be examined and adopted by Parliament as soon as possible, why not as early as July," the Minister of Health indicated last week. Supported by public opinion - mostly in favor of compulsory vaccination for caregivers - and by several medical authorities, the executive hopes to find a consensus.

To achieve this, Prime Minister Jean Castex must receive from this Monday the group leaders of the National Assembly and the Senate.

A "consultation" which must also be carried out with the representatives of local elected officials.

According to the French Hospital Federation (FHF), 57% of nursing staff are now vaccinated in nursing homes and 64% in hospitals.

Despite a notable increase in recent days, these rates remain insufficient for the government.

But is the implementation of such a measure safe for the executive?

Risk of mistrust and divisions

“On subjects as important as the vaccination obligation, there is always a political risk. It has to be measured and integrated. But a majority of French people are in favor and whether we like it or not, the Delta variant is there, ”sweeps the leader of senators La République en Marche (LREM), François Patriat. According to an Odoxa survey published on July 1, 72% of French people would indeed be in favor of compulsory vaccination for hospital staff and those in nursing homes. Put in place in Italy since April, this obligation seems to have borne fruit. As of July 2, according to data from the Italian government, 89% of healthcare professionals were fully immunized.

For the LFI deputy, Eric Coquerel, forcing caregivers to be vaccinated could however have the effect of "increasing divisions" within the population.

“If this measure does not change the health situation, we run the risk of reinforcing mistrust of the authorities.

And personally, I do not understand at all this logic of blaming health professionals who have already given a lot since the start of the crisis ”.

The elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis pleads for a clarification of the speeches around the vaccine: “We must make an additional educational effort to convince.

And even if the vaccine seems essential to me, we cannot be satisfied with basing our entire strategy on this single tool ”.

In search of a consensus

Anxious to "convince" before coercing, Olivier Véran believes that a "political consensus" is "possible": "The idea is not to brutalize anyone. But if the parliamentary groups decide to block the examination of the text, and if in two months the epidemic starts again strongly with the Delta variant, we will not have the essential tools to avoid closing the country. I am not sure that the political oppositions are ready to assume to plunge back into confinement, so I remain confident, ”he told the 

Journal du Dimanche

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An argument that the deputy Eric Coquerel refuses to hear: "I do not want the compulsory vaccination of caregivers, in the absence of consensus, to become a pretext for not proposing alternatives to confinement in the event of the 4th wave. .

For a year, for example, we have been asking for an emergency plan for the hospital to increase the beds and prevent services from being overwhelmed during the outbreak of the epidemic ”.

No vaccination obligation for the general population

Finally, behind the vaccination obligation for caregivers, some political leaders brandish the specter of compulsory vaccination for the entire population. "The vaccine obligation against Covid (...) even on targeted professions - which would be a precedent opening to a globalization of the obligation - would be a totalitarian decision", tweeted this Sunday Jean-Frédéric Poisson, ex- participant in the right-wing primary in 2016 and chairman of the “People's Voice” party.

But the executive - Emmanuel Macron in the lead - has always opposed this measure.

"Today, our working environment is caregivers, not beyond caregivers," government spokesman Gabriel Attal repeated on Sunday, stressing that "the issue of compulsory vaccination for all the population at this stage does not arise ”.

For the professor of political communication at Celsa, Mathieu Slama, one certainty emerges, however: "The vaccination obligation for caregivers will very probably strengthen the discourse of those who denounce, since the beginning of the crisis, a coercive management of the epidemic and a "liberticidal" policy of the Head of State.

The real issue for him is not to find himself stuck in this subject throughout the presidential campaign ”.

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Health

Coronavirus: A hundred doctors claim the vaccination obligation for caregivers

  • Jean Castex

  • Virus

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Vaccination

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus