All French soldiers will be vaccinated against Covid-19 before being deployed to theaters of foreign operations, Armed Minister Florence Parly announced on Twitter on Friday, May 7.
This vaccination will be compulsory, under penalty for the recalcitrant soldier of being declared unfit for the mission, specified the staff.
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“
All soldiers in foreign operations will now be vaccinated.
The health of our soldiers is essential to the accomplishment of their mission
", tweeted the minister, thanking"
the commitment of the SSA (military health service)
".
This announcement comes as President Emmanuel Macron opened the floodgates for vaccination against Covid-19 in France on Thursday, May 6, declaring the openness to injections for all 50 years and over, and from 18 years old when he remainder of the available doses.
"Preserving the health of personnel"
"
It is a question of preserving the health of the personnel of the armed forces and of maintaining our operational capacities
", declared Colonel Frédéric Barbry, spokesperson for the staff. The special forces, the soldiers deployed in the Sahel, the Levant, Lebanon, etc. will be gradually vaccinated, the objective being to "
prioritize personnel sent to places with a low level of health care,
" he underlines. More than 7,000 soldiers are currently deployed in external operations (excluding specific missions such as that of the aircraft carrier), including more than 5,000 in the Sahel, as part of the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane, which constitutes the largest French external operation. "
This vaccination is compulsory.
Its refusal will cause the person concerned to be unfit for the opex (external operation) considered
”, underlined Colonel Barbry.
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Vaccination against Covid-19 has been added to the vaccination schedule provided for by the Defense Code and to which personnel engaged on an external mission are subject. Among these vaccine obligations is yellow fever in particular, although this vaccination is not compulsory for the civilian population. Several thousand French soldiers have already been vaccinated, including the 2,200 sailors of the carrier strike group including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, while nearly two-thirds of the building's crew had been contaminated on board in 2020 The crews of the amphibious helicopter carrier Tonnerre and the frigate Surcouf, which are currently crossing in the East China Sea, were also vaccinated before their departure, as was theall the personnel of French nuclear submarines (Strategic Oceanic Force, FOST), according to the General Staff.