• A few days ago, the Minister of Health, François Braun, announced the reintegration "mid-May" of unvaccinated caregivers.
  • And this Thursday, the Assembly adopted at first reading a text to repeal the anti-Covid vaccination obligation of caregivers, rather than simply suspending this obligation, as planned by the government.
  • Announcements that raise the concern of many health professionals, who fear the dissemination of an anti-vax and conspiracy discourse to patients.

Back to school is fast approaching. In mid-May, the suspended caregivers for lack of a complete vaccination schedule against Covid-19 will be reinstated and will be able to resume their work, announced before the weekend the Minister of Health, François Braun. A decision that follows the favorable opinion of the High Authority for Health (HAS), given at the end of March, on the lifting of the vaccination obligation for caregivers and other professionals concerned. By the end of 2021, it had been imposed on a total of 2.7 million people, and a few thousand had been suspended after refusing it. A very low proportion in relation to staffing: in March, for example, the ministry estimated that "around 0.3%" of hospital staff had been suspended.

And new, the deputies adopted this Thursday at first reading a bill to repeal - and not only suspend - this vaccination obligation, against the will of the government.

Repeal, not suspension

The reinstatement of suspended staff had become a political hobbyhorse, especially for the RN and LFI. But the announcement made in this direction by the Minister of Health was obviously not considered sufficient by many opposition MPs, especially from overseas. Like Jean-Victor Castor (French Guiana), author of the text voted today. "The decree [planned by the government] will only suspend the suspensions, leaving the possibility" of resorting to them again, he insisted. Its text also provides that officers "retain the right to promotion that they possessed before the suspension".

During the debate, left-wing MPs focused on rejecting accusations of "conspiracy". "I reiterate the respect we have for scientists, for vaccination," insisted the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel.

"Conspiracy has prevailed over science"

But this vote made many caregivers jump. "Thank you LFI. It is the poorest, those who live in promiscuity, who have suffered the most, regrets the emergency doctor Mathias Wargon on Twitter. It was the nursing assistants, stretcher-bearers, nurses who were closest to the patients. By trampling on the vaccination obligation, you are paving the way for the next epidemics, "he reproached the elected rebels. The president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians, Jean-Marcel Mourgues, meanwhile, spoke of his "misunderstanding", while "Covid continues to make sick and kill many people". Even today, "it kills more than the flu, with 206 deaths" in France the last week of April, he recalled.

And François Braun? "Conspiracy has trumped science in the debates in the Assembly. Vaccination is a weapon of mass protection, but the oppositions have decided to send a regrettable message to health workers," he said on Twitter. "When the minister announced yesterday the reinstatement of unvaccinated caregivers and today deplores the repeal of the vaccination obligation, there is a problem of consistency," said Thierry Amouroux, spokesman for the National Union of Nursing Professionals.



Fear of anti-vax discourse among patients

For health professionals who are about to see unvaccinated colleagues return, the latest announcements are therefore cause for concern. "We wonder about the return to our services of caregivers hostile to vaccination, who reject scientific data, and about the discourse they could hold with patients," says Thierry Amouroux. First, there is the prevention of health risks by vaccinating caregivers: protecting them from contamination in the workplace, and preventing them from causing patients nosocomial contamination, he insists. But there is also the whole ethical aspect: we have people who, after almost two years of suspension, hold anti-vax and conspiracy speeches. These caregivers, if they resume their activity and the vote to repeal the vaccination obligation is confirmed [the text must now be examined by the Senate], what will they say to fragile patients who question them about the merits of vaccination? »

Fears shared by Dr. Jérôme Marty, general practitioner and president of the French Union for Free Medicine (UFML), who deplores the decision of the Minister of Health to reinstate unvaccinated caregivers. "Those who left the boat in the middle of a storm, who let their sisters and brothers face their defections, who espoused crazy and anti-science theses without having returned, who, while they had non-RNA vaccines, did not, who continue to propagate ideas transmitted by crooks, who capitalize on quackery, They don't have to be reinstated." "Those who think that the vaccine is part of a vast plan that aims to eradicate a part of humanity have nothing to do in care," he told François Braun on Thursday.

  • Health
  • Vaccination
  • Anti-covid vaccine
  • Caregivers
  • Anti-vaccine
  • Hospital
  • Nursing home