The French National Assembly voted on Thursday, May 4th, in first reading to repeal compulsory vaccination for health care workers. The provision had been made during the COVID pandemic. For many months, health care workers had been asking for this obligation to be lifted and for them to be reinstated in the health service profession.
A few weeks ago, the High Authority for Health gave the green light for the reinstatement of non-vaccinated carers. The government then announced their return to service by decree for mid-May, but the deputies went further than initially planned. The government decree merely provided for the suspension of the obligation—making it possible to reactivate it at any time. The parliamentarians therefore voted against the government’s advice, in favour of a pure and simple repeal.
The bill in favour of repealing the vaccination requirement was proposed by a communist MP. It received 157 votes in favour and 137 against, thanks to a coalition of MPs from different opposition groups. The law that passed also provides that state health workers who have been suspended will not lose the right to career advancement provided for in their contracts that had been put in brackets during their suspension.
Health Minister François Braun reacted very negatively to the vote against his wishes, stating on Twitter that “conspiracy trumped science.”
Beyond the disagreement on the substance of the issue—the examination of the bill having given rise to heated exchanges on the relevance of vaccination against COVID-19—this is above all another failure for the government in the National Assembly, which is definitely unable to impose its line, whatever the issue at stake.
While for many caregivers the vote on the repeal is a positive sign that the pandemic is over, some categories, such as the military, reap no such benefit. In Canada, as in the United States, the army is no longer subject to mandatory vaccination.
The text adopted by the National Assembly still has to be voted on in the Senate before being definitively adopted.
