This is a figure that does not pass at the head of the state: despite thousands of doses of AstraZeneca vaccines waiting in the refrigerators, only a third of caregivers in hospitals are vaccinated against Covid-19.
"
This is not normal
", recognized Jean Castex Thursday evening by calling "
solemnly
" the staff of nursing home to be vaccinated.
During the Defense Council held on Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron discussed the idea of making vaccination compulsory for all doctors, nurses and nursing assistants, in hospitals as well as in nursing homes.
Without the decision being decided.
Read also:
Do many caregivers refuse to be vaccinated?
The vaccination obligation risks being unpopular with certain hospital staff, who like others within the population, are totally resistant to vaccination.
But the measure would have the advantage of protecting non-Covid patients from the risk of contamination.
Since the start of the epidemic, there have been nearly 44,000 people who have contracted Sars-Cov-2 in a healthcare establishment, including 27,000 patients.
Which makes Covid the number one nosocomial disease in France.
"We can no longer accept that staff refuse vaccination,"
said Professor François Chast, Tuesday, on France Inter.
For this former head of the pharmacy at Necker hospital (Paris), the injection
"is part of good practice"
, just like
"the wearing of the charlotte, mask or gown during treatment"
.
Not a first
Compulsory vaccination would not also be a first, since injections against diphtheria, tetanus, polio and hepatitis B are already for hospital and nursing home staff.
“Each year, the debate is also relaunched for influenza, against which only about 30% of caregivers are vaccinated,
recalls Dr. Benjamin Davido, infectious disease doctor at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine).
For the Covid, I think that all caregivers must be vaccinated, it is obvious.
But unfortunately, I'm not sure this is the right time to impose it.
Because if we end up with 20% of caregivers who are really resistant, refuse to be vaccinated and implore the right of withdrawal, the French hospital would not recover.
The pressure on the system is currently too great, and we have no margin. "
Dr Patrick Bouet, president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians supports the vaccination obligation, and specifies that
"among health professionals, doctors are those who vaccinate the most at 67%, against 36% for nurses and 21% for nursing assistants ”
.
This huge difference in the level of protection seems mainly related to age.
“Doctors over 50 have almost all had their injection.
But the youngest know they are safe, and there was too much emphasis at the start of the campaign on the idea that we were not sure that vaccines really reduce the transmission of the virus, so they feel no pressure to protect themselves, ”
explains Benjamin Davido.
“
For lack of doses, we decided to vaccinate only the oldest caregivers first, and we are now paying the consequences of this strategy.
On the other hand, hospital staff seem to be turning away from AstraZeneca's product, which was reserved for them after being banned over 65 years of age.