Comment: Technically, it's not yet 'mandatory vaccinations' but, effectively, it's the same thing...
President Macron tonight (July 12) announced new measures in a bid to slow the spread of the Covid Delta variant with the emphasis on vaccination.
They include obligatory vaccination for some workers, and much greater use of the pass sanitaire for access to different spaces in everyday life.
In a televised speech President Macron said that at present deaths and hospitalisations due to Covid are at their lowest for a year; however the Delta variant - "three times more contagious than the original version of the virus - was a concern, especially as it "rushes into all the areas not covered by vaccination".
If nothing is done now, cases will continue to rise strongly and there will be a rise in hospitalisations next month, the president said. However all the vaccines used in France "protect solidly" from it: "They cut its power of contamination by 12 and avoid 95% of serious forms".
Comment: Actually, it's the reverse, but that doesn't stop them claiming that only they know how to read and write scientific papers. On that note, it's telling that Macron cited as his authority 'The Science', not God or any 'higher power':
"Nous sommes une Nation de sciences, des Lumières. Quand la science nous offre les moyens de nous protéger, nous devons les utiliser avec confiance dans la raison et dans le progrès. Nous devons viser la vaccination de tous les Français".Translation:
"We are a Nation of science, of the Enlightenment. When science offers us the means to protect ourselves, we must use them with confidence in reason and in progress. We must aim for the vaccination of all French people."
He added: "The equation is simple: The more we vaccinate, the less room there will be for the virus to spread, the more we will avoid hospitalisations and the more we will avoid other mutations of the virus which could be more dangerous still."
Key points of his announced plan to control the spread of the Delta variant are:
- Mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations from now for all staff (healthcare and non-healthcare) working in hospitals, clinics, retirement homes, establishments for persons with disabilities, and all workers or volunteers who work in contact with elderly or vulnerable people, including at their homes.
- Checks and sanctions to ensure this mandatory vaccination rule is followed to begin from September 15. Health Minister Olivier Véran said that those who are not vaccinated will not be able to work, and will not be paid.
- We will no doubt need to consider "compulsory vaccination for all in France," warned President Macron, but he said that for now the government is choosing to put "confidence" in people to get vaccinated voluntarily "as soon as possible."
Comment: Actually, his term, 'confiance', translates as 'trust'. He literally said - after listing the dozen ways in which people would be compelled financially and materially to get vaccinated - that he hopes he will not have to make vaccines mandatory in law because he 'trusts' the French people to 'do the right thing'.
- Health pass required for all aged 12 and above to enter events of over 50 people from July 21. This will be expanded to cafés, restaurants, shopping centres, hospitals, retirement homes, planes, trains and coaches for long-distance journeys from the beginning of August (to be confirmed by parliamentary vote). Long-distance travel concerned will include TGV and Intercités trains, inter-regional coach trips and all domestic and international flights. Local trains, buses or trams will not be concerned.
- Booster vaccine doses for older people who were vaccinated in January or February and whose antibody and immunity levels may soon start to diminish. First appointments can be made from the beginning of September.
- Secondary school pupils and university students: New vaccination campaigns to start after the summer in educational establishments
- Covid-19 PCR tests which are not for medical reasons and proven with a prescription will no longer be free from this autumn. This is aimed at tests needed to meet travel and leisure.
- Stricter border controls for travellers arriving from 'at-risk countries' with enforced self-isolation for unvaccinated people.
- A state of health emergency will be declared from tomorrow for Martinique and Reunion, and a curfew will be established. Such measures will be avoided in mainland France unless the incidence rate in a department rises above 200 cases per 100,00/per week and hospitalisations rise. In this case prefects could take special measures.
France's health pass (pass sanitaire) refers to:
- A Covid-19 test (rapid antigen or PCR) showing a negative result and taken within the past 48 hours
- A Covid-19 vaccination certificate
- A Covid-19 test (rapid antigen or PCR) showing a positive Covid-19 result, taken between two weeks and six months from date of test
A pass is currently required to enter events with more than 1,000 people.
Comment: So, this Fall, in France, if your children are of school age, the state will inject them with (mostly) 'gene therapy' experimental cocktails, and it will coerce everyone else to 'voluntarily' do likewise, lest they wish to instead spend upwards of 200 euros each time they go shopping for essential goods like food, see a doctor, or even order a coffee.
The mask is fully off now...