Should healthcare workers be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 ? The government is stepping up pressure strikes towards these professionals. For them, the vaccination could become mandatory.
Some caregivers, and particularly in nursing homes, where there are many caregivers, refuse or still hesitate to be vaccinated. As of June 15, 55.3% of nursing home or long-term care unit professionals had received one dose of vaccine and 41.9% had received two doses, while vaccination for these personnel has been open since the 27th. December. Insufficient
, repeats the government. An issue ethics as well as public health
, pleads the High Authority of Health.
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The proportion of health professionals who are fully vaccinated. © Ouest-France infographic
The vaccine obligation? Caregivers are already subject to it in hospitals and nursing homes. Against hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus and polio. Against Covid-19? The “Monsieur vaccine ”government, Alain Fischer, is in favor. The Hospital Federation of France also pleads in this direction. Like Synerpa, the National Union of Private Institutions for the Elderly. The president of the Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy? He has change of opinion
: “I was against the obligation, he explained Wednesday June 30 on France Inter, but it seems to me that now we have reached the level where we will have to consider it. “
The AD-PA (Association of Directors in the Service of the Elderly) is on the contrary opposed, judging that dialogue must take precedence
. “Professionals are exhausted, explains its director, Pascal Champvert. They have paid a heavy price for Covid. They facilitated the vaccination of residents. We must listen to the reasons for their mistrust, accompany them rather than threaten them with a stick. “
“We are made to feel guilty”
“We are made to feel guilty, also regrets Malika Belarbi, nursing assistant in an nursing home in the Paris region, and a CGT Santé union member. However, the nursing assistants are tired. They gave everything, they were heroes, but everything fell and nothing changed. The priority for them is to have the means to do their job well. In one establishment, two colleagues take care of thirty-five Alzheimer residents alone for twelve hours at a time. They have a professional conscience, a considerable physical and mental burden. They give themselves, and we ask them to be vaccinated … If, first, there were more consideration, staff … “
Professor at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health, Judith Mueller looked at the factors of resistance to vaccination, particularly in nursing homes. We can assume that, in some people, not getting vaccinated is a way of expressing dissatisfaction with their employer and their working conditions.
, she explains.
The benefit-risk ratio
At stake, also: the feeling that in the benefit ratio (of the vaccine) risk (of the Covid), the balance is not tilted in favor of the vaccine. There is a problem of fear, of trust. Some fear a serious accident after the vaccine.
For this, the researcher at the Institut Pasteur is convinced of the need to do very targeted pedagogy
on the subject. If people are convinced that vaccination protects them, more than it is dangerous, and that it concerns their health, that of their loved ones, their position may change.
Yes it is necessary “To educate, abounds Malika Belarbi. It is necessary to have team meetings, to explain the interest of the vaccination. Myself, I’m afraid, she says. But the pharmacist in my department explained to me that it was a way of protecting myself, of protecting my diabetic husband… ” Since then, she said, she has made contact
with occupational medicine.
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