“The obligation to vaccinate once morest covid-19 provided for by article 12 of the aforementioned law of August 5, 2021 is suspended”, indicates the decree broadcast in the night.
It thus lifts the vaccination obligation for caregivers and therefore authorizes their return.
The conditions of this return, which provide in particular that the suspended person be reinstated in the same post or a post “equivalent”were defined by the government in a ministerial instruction issued two weeks ago, to give hospitals and other healthcare establishments time to prepare.
A possible suspension if the pandemic starts once more
The government keeps the possibility of suspending the non-vaccinated once more if the pandemic starts once more, by a new decree.
The PCF group in the National Assembly voted on May 4 a bill definitively repealing the obligation to vaccinate once morest Covid, which would prohibit any return of suspensions. But the government opposes it, and the bill has not yet been examined by the Senate.
The exclusion of unvaccinated caregivers has inflamed social media, but the number of people affected is likely quite small.
A few thousand people affected
The estimates range from a few thousand, according to the fragmentary indications obtained in particular from the Ministry of Health, to “from 20 to 40,000 people”, according to Elsa Ruillère, a leader of groups of caregivers refusing the vaccine who became elected CGT Health.
In total, the obligation to be vaccinated was requested from 2.7 million people, whether they were in direct contact with the sick – caregivers, nurses, doctors, paramedics, home helpers, firefighters – or even indirectly, such as the administrative staff of healthcare establishments.
