Local government is hit by the slow pace of vaccine distribution • In 6 days, about 500 people out of 67 million citizens were vaccinated • "National scandal"
The Corona in the World:
Much anger has been directed in recent days at the cautious vaccination policy adopted by the French government, which has led to the vaccination of only about 500 people in the first week of the national vaccination campaign.
French president ill in Corona // Archive photo: Reuters
Last Monday, local health minister Olbia Varane said he intended to increase the rate of immunization and said there was "still a chance" he said of beating the global epidemic that claimed the lives of over 1.8 million people.
In parallel with Varane's announcement, President Emanuel Macron met with senior government officials to formulate a new immunization policy, as well as ways to deal with the new mutations in the virus that have been discovered in recent weeks.
The finger of blame is currently being pointed at the failed management, manpower shortage in the face of the holidays and government policy that has planted great skepticism among citizens regarding the effectiveness of vaccines.
The president of the Grand East district in the east of the country said that "this is a national scandal. It is much more complicated to get vaccinated than to buy a car."
According to data released last Monday, out of 67 million citizens, only 516 of them were vaccinated.
For comparison, in Germany over 200,000 people were vaccinated in the first week, and in Italy over one hundred thousand were vaccinated.
France launched the vaccination campaign on December 27 in nursing homes, following the deaths of many seniors since the plague broke out in the country.
At the same time, it seems that the number of victims did not affect the citizens' willingness to get vaccinated.
According to the results of a local survey, the fear of the side effects of the vaccines and the fact that they were approved quickly raises many questions about the profits they bring to the big drug companies.