Should we make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory?
Who should be vaccinated first?
The High Authority for Health (HAS), which advises the government, has drawn up recommendations.
The ministry is then free to follow them or not.
Professor Élisabeth Bouvet explains them in detail.
The arrival of a vaccine against Covid-19 seems to be approaching.
Faced with this very particular peril, should this vaccination be imposed?
Prof. ÉLISABETH BOUVET.
We have had an in-depth reflection on this subject.
We carried out consultations within the HAS, by interviewing health professionals, but also users from the associative world.
What emerges is that we do not recommend mandatory vaccination against Covid.
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Why this choice, when the pandemic is exceptional?
We believe that making this vaccination compulsory poses more problems than it provides solutions.
Vaccinations are only compulsory in France for infants, for 11 vaccines, but not for adults, except in very specific cases for certain professionals.
The main concern is to know what we would do with people who then refuse to be vaccinated, we are not going to send them to prison for this reason!
However, there are many in France.
But what to do ?
On the contrary, we want to gain the trust of the public, tell them in full transparency what are the expected benefits and possibly the risks of the vaccine, so that everyone can make their choice freely.
This approach seems to us to be more effective.
Let us remember the failures of the mass vaccination campaign of 2010 against the H1N1 flu, where people did not want to go to the gyms to be vaccinated.
A new, more modern approach is needed, bringing together general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and health establishments.
But do you seem very cautious about the anti-Covid vaccine?
No, we are completely in favor of vaccination against Covid, but we must be careful to define a good method and not to wield the stick policy which could prove to be unproductive.
It is our opinion, maybe others will not see it that way.
It is also necessary to ensure the total safety of the vaccine before offering it.
But it is true that the magnitude of the second wave gives us all the desire to act quickly.
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Do you think it is necessary to establish an order of priority anyway?
We recommend vaccinating dependent elderly people who are in nursing homes first, because they are the most at risk.
At the same time, we are also proposing to vaccinate health personnel and medico-social establishments, because they must absolutely not contaminate the most fragile.
Secondly, we propose to vaccinate people between 65 and 75 years old, in particular those who have pathologies, such as the flu.
We are in the process of considering whether to extend these recommendations to a wider section of society.