Limits to the exemption from medical confidentiality, supervisory body and individual right of opposition in certain cases: the Senate approved conditions Tuesday evening the creation of a “information system” to identify people infected with coronavirus and their contacts. The senators, a right-wing majority, adopted by 278 votes to 29, with 34 abstentions, the sensitive article 6 of the bill extending the state of health emergency thus amended, at first reading.
“If we don’t have tracking, we have no deconfinement ” from May 11, assured the Minister of Health Olivier Véran. Of “Brigades” or “Guardian Angels”, in particular agents with the Health insurance, will be charged to make go up the list of the cases contacts of the infected people. The system that will centralize information is “The central device of deconfinement” because you have to be able “Identify infected people” so that they isolate themselves, but not “whatever the price” for freedom or protection of personal data, according to the rapporteur LR Philippe Bas.
The senators validated the “Guarantees” made in committee: exemption from medical confidentiality limited in duration – that of the state of health emergency -, and the scope – only data concerning infection with the virus.
They refused to empower the government to legislate by orders on this issue and created a supervisory body, which the government did not object to. They also provided for the possibility of refusing to be registered in the patient tracking file, for example for people who had been wrongly designated as having been in contact with a patient.
Finally, they explicitly excluded that the text could serve as a legal basis for the deployment of the StopCovid smartphone application. But “There is no link between article 6 and StopCovid”, hammered Olivier Véran.
Senators also planned Tuesday evening notice “Compliant” of the National Commission for Data Protection (Cnil) on the information system.
The government has sought in vain to remove the patient’s right of opposition, the time-bounding of the device as well as its targeting on the Covid-19, wishing to leave the possibility of adding additional health data. Several political groups were divided, in particular the elected members of the Centralist Union and the socialists, some judging imperative the consent of the sick or the respect of medical confidentiality. Others fiercely opposed the device, even amended, like the communists opposed to a “Derogatory system”.
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