FROM CORRESPONDENT PARIS Suspects of a skip-the-line vaccination at the American Hospital of Paris, the hospital founded in 1906 in the chic suburb of Neuilly and originally intended to the wealthy Americans of Paris (now it is frequented by wealthy people of all nationalities, especially French). According to a public radio investigation France Info, in January, the institute’s management vaccinated about twenty members of its Board of Governors and some important donors against Covid-19. And that’s when still some doctors and nurses from the same hospital were not and have not been vaccinated.
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The minister
The suspicion of a privilege accorded to some personalities by virtue of power and wealth made the Minister of Health, Olivier Veran react: “The government protects the most fragile in order of priority, wherever they are on the national territory and whatever their social conditions. I will not accept special treatments, if there were any they would be unpleasant and I would tell the interested parties ».
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The witness
“They called me to get vaccinated in the US hospital’s occupational medicine ward on February 14, and I received the second dose in early February,” he told France Info honorary hospital governor Bruno Durieux, former minister of health from 1990 to 1992. “All governors have been invited to do so.” Durieux is 76 years old but other colleagues are younger, and for all the other French people the national vaccination campaign for over-75s and people at risk due to severe co-morbidities began a few days later, only on 18 January. .
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The vaccines
After a very slow initial phase, amidst logistical difficulties and the distrust of the majority of citizens, vaccination has now taken a faster pace and the attitude of the French has also changed, who now mostly want to have access to the vaccine as soon as possible. For this reason, the hypothesis of a preferential ride in the luxurious Neuilly institute provokes many discontent. Vaccines used for “governors” before doctors and nurses are part of the stock of Pfizer-BioNtech doses supplied by the Regional Health Agency to private clinics in the Paris region. “Among doctors we talk about the sixth or seventh dose of the vaccine, the one that can be obtained from each vial if you pay close attention, as well as the” Vip dose “, the one that can be administered to people who are not part of the priority list”, a hospital source told France Info.
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The hospital
The management ofAmerican Hospital of Paris he defends himself against accusations of favoritism and assures that the vaccinated people “were voluntary and in the required conditions”, and refuses to disclose the identities and ages of the vaccinated governors, out of respect for privacy. France Info cites, as examples of non-senior governors, Arnaud Lagardère (59), heir to the Lagardère group, or Helen Lee Bouygues, 45, wife of Bruno Bouygues of the infrastructure giant of the same name. The American hospital in Paris has a tradition of famous guests: among them Gertrude Stein, Joséphine Baker, Jim Morrison, Aristote Onassis, François Truffaut, Bette Davis, Karl Lagerfeld. Its reputation is due to the quality of care and the luxury of its service, although in recent months the hospital has tried to lower prices to accommodate a more varied clientele and still occupy the seats left by wealthy foreigners, unable to travel due to of the pandemic.
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February 9, 2021 (change February 9, 2021 | 15:00)
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