According to the decree which suspends this vaccination obligation, the government keeps the possibility of new measures against these caregivers if the pandemic were to start again.
A decision that is controversial, but which is now official. This Sunday, the government published in the Official Journal Decree allowing the return to work of caregivers not vaccinated against Covid, who had been suspended from their duties since August 2021.
According to this document, initialed by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and Minister of Health François Braun, the text “enters into force the day after its publication”, i.e. this Monday, May 15. The professionals concerned will thus be able to return today.
Subject to
The conditions for this return, which provide in particular for the suspended person to be reinstated in the same post or an “equivalent” post, were defined by the government in a ministerial instruction issued two weeks ago, to leave hospitals and other establishments time to prepare.
The government retains the possibility of suspending the non-vaccinated again if the pandemic were to start again, by means of a new decree.
On March 30, the High Authority for Health (HAS) issued an opinion, recommending the lifting of the vaccination obligation against Covid-19 for caregivers. In the process, the Minister of Health François Braun announced that the government would follow this advice.
At the same time, the PCF group in the National Assembly voted on May 4 a bill definitively repealing the obligation to vaccinate against Covid. But the government opposes it, and the bill has not yet been examined by the Senate.
Minority
The exclusion of unvaccinated caregivers has inflamed social media, but the number of people affected is likely quite small.
The estimates range from a few thousand, according to the fragmentary indications obtained in particular from the Ministry of Health, to “from 20 to 40,000 people”, according to Elsa Ruillère, a leader of groups of caregivers refusing the vaccine who became elected CGT Health.
According to the French hospital federationonly 4,000 health professionals are suspended, i.e. 0.3% of the country’s hospital staff.
In total, the obligation to be vaccinated was requested from 2.7 million people, whether they were in direct contact with the sick – caregivers, nurses, doctors, paramedics, home helpers, firefighters – or even indirectly, such as the administrative staff of healthcare establishments.
