The Scientific Council declares itself "
reserved
" on a possible reintegration of caregivers not vaccinated against Covid-19, while the seventh wave of the epidemic remains "
very present
", in its probable last opinion given to the government, published on Wednesday.
The Council first stresses that "
the vast majority of caregivers in the various sectors (hospital, medico-social, city) have been vaccinated
" and that the numbers of suspended caregivers "
remain limited
", even if they are "
probably a slightly higher due to the confidential nature of this statement
.
For doctors and pharmacists, “
only
” 75 out of the 85,000 in practice would have been suspended, for nurses, 950 out of 240,000, he specifies.
"
While the 7th wave Omicron BA.2 is still very present
", the Scientific Council says it is "
reserved about such a reintegration
", setting out seven arguments.
Read alsoCovid-19: reintegrating unvaccinated caregivers would be “a fault”, judges the Academy of Medicine
The opinion of the HAS soon expected
According to the authority, "
a caregiver must favor all the gestures and procedures so as not to contaminate the often fragile patients whom he takes care of and to limit the occurrence of clusters
", and "
the notion of exemplarity and values associated with care remains essential for the majority of caregivers
".
In addition, she observes, "
the reintegration of non-vaccinated caregivers into hospital teams will probably not have an impact on improving hospital organization
", given the limited number of people concerned, but "
may , on the contrary, raise problems of rejection within the teams
”.
On the epidemiological level, the Council argues that "
persons vaccinated and infected with the Delta variant carry a lower and less durable viral load than infected non-vaccinated
" but also that "
the appearance of a new variant more severe in the fall would require a return to targeted vaccination on certain populations or certain professions
”.
He also insists on the importance of the booster vaccination for caregivers, because "
the 3rd dose is compulsory in this population but not always carried out
" while it is "
particularly important
" for people at risk.
Read alsoCovid-19: the reintegration of non-vaccinated caregivers “is not on the table”
After asserting in the National Assembly at the beginning of July that the reintegration of unvaccinated caregivers was still "
not relevant
", the Minister of Health announced last week in the Senate the referral of several scientific bodies to shed light on an upcoming decision.
François Braun said Wednesday morning on LCI that he was counting on an opinion from the High Health Authority by “
the end of the week
”.
The Academy of Medicine, for its part, expressed on Tuesday its "
firm opposition
" to the reinstatement of unvaccinated caregivers.