To “anticipate” before a possible fourth wave, the government could announce before September an obligation for caregivers to be vaccinated against Covid-19, its spokesperson Gabriel Attal said Thursday.
The consultations on the subject, announced this Wednesday by Prime Minister Jean Castex with the associations of local elected officials and the presidents of parliamentary groups, will allow “including to address the question of the calendar”, he said on LCI . “On the calendar there is absolutely nothing fixed, and I think anything is possible,” he said.
The free test in question
Because from the moment to be vaccinated requires two doses “plus fifteen days” before the second injection is fully effective, “as soon as you announce an obligation”, you must “anticipate” and “give a little visibility so that people can get vaccinated ”within the allotted time. The announcement of an obligation for caregivers could therefore take place before September? “Absolutely,” he replied. Gabriel Attal also confirmed that the Prime Minister’s consultations will focus on “the perimeter of the health pass”.
Asked about the possibility of making vaccination compulsory for, for example, going to restaurants or museums, he set two conditions: that such an “evolution” be “effective” in convincing people to be vaccinated, and that it either “feasible”, that is to say that the control of people at the entrance of establishments is technically “operational”. However, before arriving there, we must “continue to deploy efforts to convince those who are not vaccinated”, by “mobilizing the treating physicians” and by asking “from a certain point the question of the free of charge ”. “Since the start of the vaccination campaign, we have chosen trust rather than coercion and it has worked rather very well,” he noted. However, he said “fear a form of fracture” and “difficulties (…) in terms of cohesion of the French” if the epidemic were to resume in the unvaccinated.
“At least 80%” of nursing staff vaccinated “by September”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that he would launch “in the coming days” a consultation on the compulsory vaccination of caregivers with associations of local elected officials and the presidents of parliamentary groups. Jean Castex was questioned by Claude Malhuret, president of the Les Indépendants group, who, noting that “many scientists advise compulsory vaccination” of nursing staff, questioned the relevance “of considering decisions in this direction before the fall”.
“The risk is clear: that of a fourth wave in the fall”, particularly because of the spread of the delta variant, warned Claude Malhuret. “Like all French people, I am shocked (…) when we see the epidemic reintroducing itself (…) through those whose vocation it is to protect and treat. That is not admissible, ”replied Jean Castex, referring in particular to the recent case of a cluster in an Ehpad in the Landes. The government set a target on Tuesday of “at least 80%” of nursing home staff and hospitals vaccinated against Covid “by September”, failing which “the way of an obligation” would be opened.
Towards “legislative measures”
Noting that “only 55% of professionals have received at least one dose” in nursing homes and long-term care units (USLD), the Ministers of Health Olivier Véran and of Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon considered that this ratio was ” insufficient ”, in a letter addressed to the directors of hospitals and retirement homes, dated Monday. The executive can already count on the support of the Hospital Federation of France (FHF), which called Wednesday in a press release for “compulsory vaccination of health professionals and all those in contact with patients”, even if it means “Consider legislative measures”.
While “numerous indications suggest that the epidemic situation could deteriorate again from September”, the FHF notably argues that “the vaccination of professionals contributes to not destabilizing the teams in the event of an epidemic resumption”. Pr Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the Scientific Council, also indicated on Wednesday morning that he had “changed his mind” on this subject: “I was against the obligation, but it seems to me that now we have reached the level where we are will have to consider it, ”he said on France Inter.