France analyzes the imposition of the obligation to be vaccinated against the coronavirus

Faced with the 20% growth in two weeks of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the French government tests making vaccination compulsory if the young and the popular classes continue to resist the sting. A step that I would start with the health personnel, who do not have the enthusiasm to do it.

Two curves disturb and announce a French summer which can be spoiled by the Covid: the proportion of the Delta variant among the new cases continues to increase, now around 20%, and on the other hand, the proportion of the first injections of vaccines fell from 75% to 25% in just one month.

In this context, the Minister of Health Olivier Veran and the Prime Minister Jean Castex believe in a unique solution: mass vaccination. Increase the number of vaccinated as quickly as possible to get closer to collective immunity.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal described him as a “Worrisome situation”, “Where the epidemic has gained ground.” “We have a trump card to prevent a new wave from sweeping hospitals across our country, which is vaccination,” he said.

A hundred doctors have asked the government, in a public appeal to the Sunday Newspaper, make vaccination compulsory for caregivers and nursing home staff “before the beginning of September”. Among the firms are personalities made famous by the Covid crisis, such as infectious disease specialists Karine Lacombe and Gilles Pialoux. But also the former president of the Academy of Pharmacy, François Chast and the former director of Public Health of France, François Bourdillon.

Professor Alain Fischer, “Mr. Vaccine, from the government, He also spoke in favor of this obligation, considering that there were too many caregivers to be unprotected. The debate has resumed in recent days with very insufficient vaccination rates: 57% in nursing homes, 64% in hospitals, according to the French Hospital Federation (FHF).

The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, is now in favor, promising this Tuesday that if the target of 80% of vaccinated caregivers was not reached in September, the Covid vaccine would be added to other obligations already established for these personnel (hepatitis B, tetanus, polio). Three days later, he promised to take a step forward, with a law that could be examined by Parliament “as early as July”. An hour confirmed by the government spokesperson, who sees the obligation to vaccinate caregivers “a serious possibility”.

To prepare the ground, Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to address the issue on Monday, during meetings with the leaders of Parliament and local elected officials. If the government is considering other levers to relaunch the vaccination campaign, there is no doubt to impose it on the entire population.

Vaccine for all

Sunday, during the program “Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI“, The centrist and leader of the Modem, François Bayrou, spoke” in favor of an obligation for all French people “, citing his fear” that one day a mutation will cause the virus. is extremely harmful to children “.

“To protect yourself from mutations, we must stop the spread of the virus and we can only stop the spread by vaccination, ”said the head of the MoDem and High Commissioner for Planning.

Make vaccination compulsory It is the only way achieve “collective immunity sufficient to control the epidemic”?

This is the debate today in France. That the entire population be vaccinated to face the threat of new variants, including boys and young people.

A fourth wave of the Covid epidemic threatens to sweep over France and could arrive at the end of July and August and not in September and October, as expected, given the speed of its exponential capacity.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal has said on several occasions in recent days: “the subjects” a form of “division between those who have been vaccinated and those who will not be vaccinated”. “Resentment is growing very strongly,” adds public health doctor Hélène Rossinot.

“In the field, we already feel that the vaccinated they are tempted to free themselves from all barrier and forbidden gestures, by saying to themselves that they have made enough efforts “, estimates the deputy of Haut-Rhin Olivier Becht.

In its latest models, published this Tuesday, June 29, the Institut Pasteur writes it in black and white: at the start of the school year, unvaccinated people could “contribute disproportionately” to the epidemic. Everyone is said to be “12 times more likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 than a person who has been vaccinated.” In the hospital, unvaccinated people over 60 years old could represent 3% of the population but 35% of hospitalizations.

The team of scientists adds an interesting and potentially explosive element for the government. Any measure to deal with the epidemic “has a similar impact if it is applied to the whole population or only to unvaccinated people”. Clearly, placing restrictions on who gets their two doses will not provide any additional benefit. However, more than one inhabitant in two will be the case by the end of August, if the government’s objectives are met.

“It will be unimaginable for them to impose things on them,” anticipates Hélène Rossinot. Now, “what I hear more and more is:” It’s good that they vaccinated me, it is out of the question to undergo further measures while I’m protected, ”she said.

“It will be the same resentment as when you see someone without a mask in a store or in a closed space “, adds the deputy of the LREM of Hérault and professor of immunology, Jean-François Eliaou. The difference is that the vaccination status can not be seen from the outside, except if ‘ this is a relative or friend with whom we have spoken.

Be careful, however, not to put all the unvaccinated in the same basket. They can be broadly separated into three groups: the resounding “antivax”, those who hesitate to be vaccinated, and finally the others far from the health system and who the “vaccinators” have not yet been able to obtain. Without forgetting the minors and especially the smallest, who can only be “punctured” from mid-June.

“We risk ending up in a scenario where adults who are widely vaccinated can resume a more or less normal life. But the students continue to live with strict health protocols at school because they are not vaccinated, ”worries Simon Cauchemez, researcher at the Institut Pasteur and member of the scientific council.

Legal issue

But would it be possible to establish two different regimes anyway? Legally, the matter is delicate. Broaden the fields of application of the sanitary passport, “it is possible, but the room for maneuver is limited», Declared Serge Slama, professor of law at the University of Grenoble Alpes.

The Constitutional Council had already ruled on the issue on May 31. He validated the law by indicating a series of guarantees, among which the fact that this sesame would only refer to to “leisure activities”, which “excludes in particular political, trade union or religious activity”. Besides large events of more than 1000 people, “this could also affect other activities such as nightclubs, but not daily activities”, anticipates Serge Slama.

To prevent this from happening, the most effective solution is obviously quickly vaccinate as many people as possible. The government has proposed that people could receive their second dose at the vacation spot to facilitate the logistics of rest and refusing to be vaccinated because the vacation is involved.

“The English example shows that a fourth wave is possible at the end of July. It is a portfolio against the clock, ”warned the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

So far the policy has been to mobilize before forcing. No country in the world has made its vaccine mandatory. France will seek to apply a strong pedagogy to young people and the working classes before finally imposing compulsory vaccination.

PB