On Thursday August 25, 2022, the AIDES association and eight other associations will meet with the health authorities. The associations expect a clear statement of government objectives on the management of the monkeypox vaccination campaign.
“There is not a lot of political will. (…) If we want to succeed in really moving forward and ensuring that this virus is not transmitted to the general population, we really have to act as quickly as possible” deplores Camille Spire. The president of the AIDES association hopes for a concrete implementation of measures in the government’s monkey pox vaccination campaign.
Indeed, the associations deplore, despite the weekly meetings with the health authorities, a lack of transparency on the objectives of managing the epidemic.
“We cannot say today that everything has been done in terms of prevention by the government. The government relies heavily on community associations that are closer to the ground. Only for prevention to be more effective, it’s not just a story of posters, not just a story of communicating such and such a thing. Real transparency on the objectives in terms of public policy but especially their implementation. There, there is a problem between the will and the implementation” explains Camille Spire.
In their press release of August 23, 2022, the nine associations including Act’Up and Sidaction are clear: “We would like the Ministry of Health and Prevention to tell us what its objective is with regard to this epidemic. Is the goal to try to eradicate it? Control it? Contain it?”
A lack of clarity which worries Camille Spire in view of the monkey pox vaccination situation in France: “On August 8 we were around 38,000 vaccinations, we must be closer to 50,000 today. And that’s not much 50,000 out of 250,000 or even 300,000 for a first dose. We are still far from the mark if we want to succeed in vaccinating everyone”.
