The French “most reluctant in the world” to take the Covid vaccine as the debate over its necessity rages

The health ministry said it was better to build public “trust” and that taking the vaccine should “go through more demonstrations than obligations”.

Marc Fesneau, minister in charge of parliamentary relations for the ruling LREM party of President Emmanuel Macron, said that although he personally agreed with Jadot, the matter required debate.

The French Higher Health Council, a government advisory group, this week spoke out against the requirement of a Covid vaccine for “the general public and healthcare professionals”.

“Vaccines are not mandatory in France, except for 11 vaccines for newborns,” said Professor Elisabeth Bouvet. “The problem is what do you do with people who refuse to be vaccinated? After all, we’re not going to send them to jail for this. And there are many, ”he told Le Parisien.

He stressed the importance of total transparency and a massive awareness campaign to avoid the “fiasco” of trying to get the French to get a vaccine against the H1N1 virus in 2009.

Currently, he said the council’s advice is to vaccinate vulnerable seniors in nursing homes and offer it to healthcare workers who are cared for by people aged 65 to 75.

Unlike Spain, which ordered 20 million doses, France did not pre-order any of Pfizer’s vaccines. The government, however, insisted on Wednesday that the French would have access to it via the 200 million doses pre-ordered by the European Union with another 100 million allocated as optional.

Asked why the French were so reluctant to take a vaccine, historian Laurent-Henri Vignaud said it sprang from a broader Gallic skepticism “in the government on the one hand and the pharmaceutical industry and industrial production system of vaccines on the other “.

The French were, he told BFMTV, among the most dissatisfied with their government’s handling of the health crisis and thus their reluctance was also a “political” vote of no confidence.

Another survey of 2,000 French people from Bordeaux University Hospital found that acceptance varied widely depending on the vaccine’s proven efficacy and provenance, with Europe inspiring more confidence and China less.