After the calls for vaccination, the demand for obligation.
"The systematic vaccination of health professionals, which has become a priority, cannot be considered optional," said the National Academy of Medicine in a press release published on Tuesday.
For learned society, "vaccine hesitation is ethically unacceptable among caregivers".
Thus, it "recommends making vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for all health professionals working in the public or liberal sector, in health establishments and in nursing homes, as well as for carers for the elderly" .
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Vaccination of caregivers against Covid: why is it slipping?
According to the authority, "the Covid-19 pandemic, which represents the most serious health and economic crisis since World War II, meets all the criteria for the establishment of compulsory vaccination" before recalling that the population of caregivers is at "the origin of 34% of the grouped cases of nosocomial infections with SARS-CoV-2".
And to wonder about the current situation.
“Despite this ease [of getting vaccinated for caregivers], the vaccination coverage rates among doctors, nurses, caregivers and professionals working in nursing homes remain notoriously insufficient, comparable to those recorded against influenza. .
"
No obligation ... for the moment
This question of compulsory vaccination of caregivers has become recurrent.
On Thursday, during its weekly press conference on the epidemic, the government urged caregivers to be vaccinated.
Prime Minister Jean Castex "solemnly" called on the staff of residences for the elderly to be vaccinated "very quickly" to allow the return of "a peaceful social life" in these establishments.
For his part, Olivier Véran specified that about 40% of nursing home staff and 30% of caregivers, in town and in hospital, had been vaccinated.
"Clearly, that is not enough", estimated the Minister of Health, who sent Friday afternoon a letter to all caregivers in France "to strongly encourage them to be vaccinated".
“Your vaccination is a guarantee of protection.
Protection for you who deal with patients on a daily basis, and in particular patients with Covid who may be contaminants.
It is also protection for your patients and for the community.
I ask you, for yourselves, your entourage, the French.
If you have not yet been vaccinated, do so quickly.
Our collective security is at stake, and our health system's ability to hold on, as it always has, and I cannot thank you enough, ”he wrote.
Protect yourself and those you care for.
My letter to caregivers on vaccination.
pic.twitter.com/GBlAuv1qRu
- Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) March 5, 2021
Saturday, the National Council of the Order of Physicians added by estimating that “the vaccination of caregivers is an ethical requirement.
The protection of patients is a fundamental professional duty of physicians as of all caregivers.
"And to add:" The Order of Physicians would like to salute the doctors, more than two thirds of whom have already met this requirement and fulfilled their duty.
He reminds doctors who have not yet done so that they urgently need to be vaccinated to protect patients.
By engaging in the vaccination campaign, first in the vaccination center and in their office for more than a week, the doctors have been giving the population access to vaccines and have enabled the acceleration of the vaccination campaign. in France.
By massively immunizing themselves, they are providing everyone with further proof of their commitment and the urgency for everyone to adhere to vaccines so that we can finally emerge from this dramatic epidemic.
"
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Sunday, in our columns, Gabriel Attal, the government spokesperson had opened the door to make vaccination compulsory.
“For the past year, our caregivers have been heroic.
But it is not acceptable that we have this rate of vaccination among caregivers today.
It would be irresponsible to refuse to be vaccinated when you are a caregiver.
Does that mean that it is immediately made compulsory?
We first make the choice of trust, but that remains a possibility.
Everyone has rolled up their sleeves to get out of this epidemic.
We must now roll them up to the shoulder while being vaccinated, ”he concluded.