In a draft opinion published on Monday February 20, 2023, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) envisages the end of compulsory vaccination once morest Covid 19 among caregivers. However, the institution will decide at the end of March.
It dates from August 5, 2021. The law requiring all healthcare personnel in France, and more generally anyone working in a hospital environment, to be vaccinated once morest Covid 19 in order to be able to continue to exercise their profession, had caused many tensions. on the national territory.
Exacerbated tensions in Overseas, especially in the West Indies and Guyana where there are countless shortcomings in the health sector. Unions, associations, collectives but also simple anonymous people had taken to the streets at that time to express their anger once morest this measure which they considered to be particularly unfair.
In Guyana, many had gathered under the banner of the Freedom Caravan to demand the repeal of this law, among other things.
A year and a half later, the subject is back on the table with this announcement from the Haute Autorité de Santé. This Monday, February 20, 2023, the authority published a draft opinion in which it indicates:
“In the current context, the vaccination obligation once morest Covid-19 might be lifted for all professionals covered by the law of August 5, 2021”before qualifying “This vaccination should however remain strongly recommended, in particular for professions for which a vaccination recommendation is currently in force for influenza, including students and professionals in the health and medico-social sectors (working in establishments or liberals) and students and professionals in close and repeated contact with young children. »
If this advice were followed by the government, it might lead to reinstatement of suspended caregivers.
Good news for the president of the URPS Infirmiers Libéraux, Mylène Mathieu, who has long demanded, alongside other union and association leaders, this measure.
France is, I believe, the last country in Europe to still have such a law in force and not to have reinstated its caregivers when we know its staffing needs, especially in Guyana. It was time.
To establish its draft recommendation, HAS took into account several elements such as vaccination recommendations and obligations abroad, the characteristics of the disease, vaccination coverage or even vaccine safety data.
But if it leans in a certain direction, the body does not call into question its past opinions, nor the effectiveness of vaccination once morest Covid 19. Nor does it reject the possibility of a backpedal.
HAS specifies that this lifting of the obligation in no way constitutes a questioning of the effectiveness, relevance and legitimacy of its previous opinions and recommendations issued in a different health context. It specifies that this recommendation to lift the vaccination obligation in no way signals the end of the epidemic, which is still ongoing and specifies that it may be reviewed in the event of an unfavorable change in the epidemiology.
High Authority of Health
She further insists: “The lifting of a vaccination obligation in the workplace should not be considered as a questioning of the interest of this vaccination, whether in the workplace or in the general population” and also recalls that “maintaining barrier gestures, and in particular the correct wearing of a mask, remain essential measures to limit transmission, independently of vaccination”.
However, this is not a definitive opinion. The HAS actually reserves its final opinion for the end of March. In view of the “societal importance” of the subject, the institution will conduct a public consultation for a month.
Despite everything, Mylène Mathieu does not hide her bitterness.
Discouraged, disgusted, many caregivers had to leave their profession to do something else. They felt like they were thrown away like kleenex. I am also thinking of the many students in health professions who have stopped their training course because of this law. And then there are also those who got vaccinated when they didn’t want to and who say all that to themselves for that. It’s really a mess. We’re going to take time to recover, to convince people to get into health-related jobs once more.
Mylène Mathieu – President of the URPS Infirmiers Libéraux
Bitter also because the one who was one of the figureheads of the anti-vaccination movement compulsory for caregivers, paid dearly for her positions.
Mylène Mathieu would indeed have been the subject of a complaint brought by the ARS Guyana and received a reprimand from the Order of Nurses.
Despite everything, she sees further: “We always knew that time would prove us right. Now we have to start thinking regarding two very important things: compensation for suspended caregivers and their rehabilitation.
A politically debated topic
Several opposition forces – on the left, France insoumise (LFI), on the far right, the National Rally (RN) – demand the reinstatement of unvaccinated caregivers. The government, as well as many health professionals, are opposed to it for medical and ethical reasons.
The executive has however decided to rely on the HAS which it has more generally entered on all the compulsory vaccines for caregivers. They also include those once morest hepatitis B, as well as diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis (combined in the DTP vaccine).
For the DTP vaccine, the HAS is leaning towards lifting the obligation with the exception of caregivers in Mayotte, which is very exposed to diphtheria. For hepatitis B, she is in favor of a partial maintenance of the obligation, targeted on caregivers exposed to a high risk of contamination. This is particularly the case for doctors exposed to blood, such as surgeons.
The HAS also intends to decide later on another aspect: vaccines which are only recommended for caregivers, such as influenza or measles.
Its work is carried out in parallel with that of the National Advisory Council for Ethics (CCNE), which must also rule, at the request of the government, on the situation of suspended caregivers.
