“A year ago, we were the heroes of the pandemic. Today we are made to look like bastards, ”laments a nurse recently questioned about the mistrust of nursing staff towards the vaccine. Bastards surely not. We all have in mind the dedication of the health professionals who took to the front lines during the pandemic. First of all, not counting their hours, they sacrificed their privacy and their comfort for the general interest. But why does this sense of the common good seem to have disappeared from their motivations when it comes to getting vaccinated?
Without vaccination, new forms of the variant will thrive causing severe damage. The circulation of the virus will continue to expose the most vulnerable (elderly, immunocompromised). The vaccine will not make the disease go away, but it will protect 90% of severe forms. It is essential. This is what will prevent saturation in hospitals. This is what will therefore limit the overload of work for the nursing staff… who nevertheless continue to be the most dubious! 57% of health professionals are vaccinated in nursing homes and 64% in hospitals. It is largely insufficient.
With 50% of its population vaccinated (far from the 80% necessary for collective immunity), France is lagging behind. Behind Canada 68%, the United Kingdom 66%, Portugal and Denmark 58%, Italy 57%, Spain and Germany 55%, the United States 54%. In addition, the proportion of the first vaccine injections in France collapsed in one month, from 75 to 25%. Faced with the deterioration of the situation, the government decided to make the vaccination of health personnel compulsory. A law will be debated and voted on in the Assembly in the coming weeks. The Covid vaccine would be in addition to the other obligations already in place for these personnel (hepatitis B, tetanus, polio).
“Since we are behind in the vaccination of health workers, why not consider the next step now: vaccination of the entire population? Not by making a law, it would be immediately rebutted, but by making the lives of those who refuse to be vaccinated sufficiently complicated for them to quickly favor the vaccine. “
What a waste of time. France has messed up on several occasions in the pandemic crisis. Lack of masks, lack of tests, delay in vaccination. The obligation to vaccinate health workers has been a subject raised for months. Why have you waited so long? The implementation of the law will still require a delay. “But everything is played out in the next fortnight”, is alarmed Alain Fischer Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Anti-Covid Vaccine Strategy.
Go further. Since we are behind in the vaccination of health workers, why not consider the next step now: vaccination of the entire population? Not by making a law, it would be immediately rebutted, but by making the lives of those who refuse to be vaccinated sufficiently complicated for them to quickly favor the vaccine. Because health workers are not the only category of recalcitrant Gauls. According to the projections, 18-40 year olds will only be vaccinated at 60-70%. Young workers prefer to wait. Wait for what ? A fourth wave in August because of the Delta variant? The endless pursuit of telework? The stop and go permanent containment? Would those who benefit from state aid have come to terms with a situation which does not penalize them economically (when they are employees) and which does not affect them frontally in terms of health?
Making the health workers bastards, or young workers, casual profiteers, is unfair. But how to explain their mistrust? A year ago, when the first vaccination campaigns began, the new forms using messenger RNA (Pfizer, Moderna) raised legitimate questions. New technology. No hindsight. But today ? Three billion doses injected into the world with an eight-month decline. “If an undesirable effect occurs, it is not years later”, answers Alain Fischer.
“There is a myriad of measures from the softest to the most muscular to make it understood that the general interest, at a certain point, is no longer a question of personal mood, sulking or corporate negotiation. “
They are not militant antivaxes either. This conspiratorial category is proportionately very low even if it is very visible on social networks. The mistrust of health workers, it is said, is in fact mistrust of the state they no longer respect, which has been making promises to them for years but does not honor them. No salary increase, no vaccination. If this is true, and even if their demands are partly legitimate, jeopardizing the health and economy of the entire country in order to weaken the state would be downright indecent. In addition, their mistrust feeds the mistrust of the rest of the population (as caregivers, they know things that we do not know…). This makes them doubly responsible.
As for young workers, it might be enough for the State to show firmness, so that, willing to involuntarily, they change position. Compulsory health passport for certain activities, non-free compliance tests (which avoid getting vaccinated), and why not refusal to extend economic aid to those who do not want to be vaccinated… There is a host of the most gentle measures to the more muscular to make it understood that the general interest, at a certain point, is no longer a question of personal mood, sulking or corporatist negotiation.
In Italy, vaccination has been compulsory for public and private health workers since April. Offenders are transferred to an administrative post and, if this is not possible, laid off. In the United Kingdom, from October 2021, the staff of the equivalent of nursing homes must be vaccinated. In Russia, where the vaccination rate is catastrophic (15%), President Putin reiterated his opposition to compulsory vaccination “but the governors of certain regions have the right to use it”. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, employees in the service sector are now forced to be vaccinated (officials, banking, commerce, transport) otherwise companies face heavy fines.
“Imagine a return to school with re-containment when a large part of the population has played the vaccination game… It will no longer be protests but an outcry, even a refusal to comply. “
In the United States, Joe Biden’s government has spoken out clearly against compulsory vaccination at the federal level, and the issue is therefore in the hands of state governors and the private sector. Certain companies prohibit the return on site (moreover strongly advised!) To those which are not vaccinated (Morgan Stanley); others do not recruit unvaccinated staff (Delta Airlines). A Texan hospital run by Methodists laid off 153 workers who did not want to be vaccinated. The city of San Francisco has announced that it will ask all its municipal employees to be vaccinated on pain of disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. On June 29, Ireland announced that it was reserving indoor access in bars or restaurants only to people vaccinated, or immunized, against Covid-19.
On August 20, Abu Dhabi will prohibit access to shopping centers, schools, nurseries, cinemas to unvaccinated people. In Greece, access to restaurants, theaters and cinemas will be restricted to people with a negative test, from July 15. Restaurant owners will be able to reserve their rooms for fully vaccinated customers using 85% of their reception capacity or also accommodate unvaccinated customers, but with a limit of 50%… They will quickly understand where their interest lies.
Even before the appearance of the Delta variant, several countries such as Austria and Denmark had chosen to introduce a health passport at the entrance to places of conviviality. Germany has planned a system of bonuses for employees agreeing to be vaccinated.
In France, the measures of constraint and possible sanctions will certainly generate protests. But imagine a re-entry with re-containment when a large part of the population has played the vaccination game … It will no longer be protests but an outcry, even a refusal to comply. And this prospect in an election year is a big puzzle for Emmanuel Macron.
Illustration: A woman receives a dose of vaccine against COVID-19, at the Palais des Festivals, in Cannes, on January 9, 2021. Photo: Serge Haouzi / Xinhua / Newscom / ABACAPRESS.COM.
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