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Several European countries, including Germany, Austria and Greece, plan to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory from the beginning of next year for at least part of the population. Health Minister Olivier Véran explained on Wednesday that this “is not the choice that France has made.” It is a measure as controversial as it is divisive.
With the current fifth wave of Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, which threatens to unseat the Delta variant in terms of infections early next year, the question of mandatory vaccination is being raised in several European states.
So far, three countries have decided to follow this path, starting with Austria. Alexander Schallenberg, until Thursday acting chancellor of the nation, noted on November 19 that “despite months of persuasion, we have not been able to convince enough people to get vaccinated.” 66% of the population had the complete vaccination schedule in mid-November. And in view of this, according to the politician, “increasing the vaccination rate in the long term is the only way to break this vicious circle,” he said.
For this reason, Austria plans to pass a bill that makes vaccination mandatory from February 1, 2022 and that provides fines of up to 7,200 euros for people who refuse to be vaccinated.
Germany, where more than 10 million people are not vaccinated, It has also decided to use this political measure: a bill will be presented in the Bundestag at the end of the year, and mandatory vaccination is expected to be implemented in February-March 2022.
Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who is expected to be Germany’s new chancellor from December 8, said on December 1 that he was personally in favor of this measure, which would also include financial sanctions for those who do not comply with vaccination.
Greece announced on November 30 that vaccination will be mandatory for those over 60 years from January 16, under penalty of a fine of 100 euros per month until they are vaccinated. “This is the price you have to pay for health,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, while half a million Greeks targeted by the measure have not yet been vaccinated.
In addition to these three countries, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on December 1 that it was “appropriate and reasonable to have this debate now” on mandatory vaccination, adding that it was a “personal position” and that it was a decision of the EU Member States.
Mandatory vaccination to “drastically reduce the circulation” of Covid-19?
Although he said he “understands” that “some countries are raising the issue,” Health Minister Olivier Véran said on December 1 that France “has not opted” for mandatory vaccination. “75% of the French population has been fully vaccinated at the beginning of December, a figure that is still too low for a possible herd immunity, theoretically estimated at 85% of people protected from the effects of the Delta variant.
However, France established last September the partial obligation of vaccination for professionals in hospitals and nursing homes, firefighters, certain military personnel and professionals and volunteers who work with the elderly, including at home.
But extending this obligation to the entire population could “drastically reduce the circulation of the virus,” according to epidemiologist Catherine Hill, contacted by France 24. “Unvaccinated people are much more likely than vaccinated people to contract Covid-19,” he adds . A finding that the Drees also made, French central public administration department, on December 3: “The number of events related to Covid-19 (positive tests, hospitalizations, deaths) is much higher for unvaccinated people than for vaccinated people of a population size comparable”.
For several months, the Executive has made the health pass the axis of its strategy against Covid-19 to reduce the circulation of the virus, but this “is not enough”, according to Catherine Hill, who recalls that on December 2 ” 5,700,000 people over 12 years of age have not been vaccinated “in France. “If people who are not vaccinated can no longer go to work or take transportation,” he said, “then they will be forced to get vaccinated.”
‘Many older people have not been vaccinated because they cannot move’
Applying the compulsory vaccination in addition to the health card “will bother everyone for no reason”, says another epidemiologist contacted by France 24: “People who are not vaccinated represent a very small percentage of the French population and we will not be able to catch them. No it is compulsory vaccination that will change the direction of the epidemic. “
A health problem continues to exist among the unvaccinated: people aged 60 and over, who are mostly the most exposed to severe forms of Covid-19. In France, 86.6% of this age group was fully vaccinated on December 3, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. This places the country in an intermediate position among the 27 EU countries, far from the podium of Ireland (100%), Portugal (99.7%) and Denmark (99.1%).
“We have not tried to vaccinate people at home in a systematic way – there are many older people who have not been vaccinated because they cannot move, so there is a serious problem,” explains Catherine Hill. The other epidemiologist contacted by France 24 also agrees: “What has not yet been done enough is to go find the elderly and facilitate vaccination”, he says, before concluding: “Then if someone 70 years old wants to stay at home without getting vaccinated, what can we do? “
* This article was adapted from its original in French.
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