[D66] [JD: 147] France achieves record Covid jabs with Macron’s ‘big stick’ approach | The Guardian

[R.O.]

theguardian.com
<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/15/france-achieves-record-covid-jabs-with-macrons-big-stick-approach>



  France achieves record Covid jabs with Macron’s ‘big stick’ approach

Jon Henley
5-7 minutes
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Within 72 hours of the French learning they would soon need to be
vaccinated or tested to go to the cafe
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/12/france-mandates-covid-health-pass-for-restaurants-and-cafes>,
more than 3 million had booked appointments and France had broken its
vaccination record, administering 800,000 shots in a single day.

At the same time, daily infections, driven by the more contagious Delta
variant, continued to climb, reaching nearly 9,000 on Wednesday – and on
Bastille Day, about 20,000 demonstrators nationwide protested
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/15/france-protests-clashes-with-police-on-bastille-day-amid-anger-at-tighter-covid-rules>
against what some called a “dictatorship”.

Polls show more than 65% public support for the range of measures
unveiled by Emmanuel Macron on Monday
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/12/france-mandates-covid-health-pass-for-restaurants-and-cafes>,
aimed, in the president’s words, not at “making vaccination immediately
obligatory for everyone … but at pushing a maximum of you to go and get
vaccinated”.

Critics, however, accuse the government of discriminating against
vaccine sceptics and those who will not be fully inoculated before the
rules come into effect, while others say the government is effectively
imposing general vaccination by stealth, trampling on individual rights
and freedoms.

Macron announced that from 21 July, anyone visiting a theatre, cinema,
sports venue or festival with an audience of more than 50 people would
need a health pass proving they were either fully vaccinated, had tested
negative or were immune.

The same requirement will be extended to bars, cafes, restaurants,
shopping centres (though not supermarkets), hospitals, long-distance
trains, coaches and planes from 1 August, he said – including for
children aged between 12 and 17 from 1 September.

_People unable to present a valid health pass risk up to six months in
prison and a fine of up to €10,000 (£8,500), according to the draft text
of the law, while owners of “establishments welcoming the public” who
fail to check patrons’ passes could go to jail for a year and be hit
with a €45,000 fine._

Meanwhile, non-essential free coronavirus testing will also end in
September, “to further encourage vaccination”, and healthcare
professionals and retirement home workers who have not been vaccinated
by 15 September will be suspended for a month to allow them to do so.
Thereafter, they risk dismissal.

The big stick approach to vaccination, which goes further than that
adopted by most governments, has had an immediate impact on take-up.

While 66% of French adults have received one dose and 53% are fully
vaccinated, the number of first doses being administered had, in common
with many western countries, started slowing as the campaign came up
against more vaccine-hesitant or hard-to-reach groups.

However, in the hours after Macron’s announcement more than 20,000 slots
a minute were being booked via Doctolib, France’s main medical
appointments website, and Stanislas Niox-Chateau, the site’s chief
executive, said vaccinations were set to accelerate rapidly to about
4.5m shots a week.

With models predicting 35,000 new cases a day if no action is taken, the
government has stressed that the coercive measures, which it has called
“maximum inducement”, are essential if France is to avoid a deadly
fourth wave and more lockdowns.

“The choice is between another lockdown or the health pass – this is not
punishment, nor blackmail,” said the health minister, Olivier Véran.
According to an Elabe poll, 76% of the French people back mandatory
vaccination for health workers and travellers, while 58% support it for
cafes, restaurants and other public places.

Some cinema and restaurant owners, while supporting the general idea,
have said they are worried the rules will prompt customers to stay away,
and are also concerned by the practicalities of checking health passes
and the limited time to prepare.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be complicated,” said Jean Hubert of the hotel
and catering industries association. “Our role is to welcome people, to
give pleasure. This will turn us into gendarmes.”

One cafe owner said if people needed to “pay to get tested to have a
beer, they’re just not going to come”. A collective of angry restaurant
owners was scheduled to meet the Paris police chief on Thursday to
discuss the measures and their implementation.

Most of the opposition have backed the measures, although the far-right
leader Marine Le Pen called them a “grave assault on civil liberties”,
with fellow members of her Rassemblement National party denouncing a
“divisive”, “authoritarian” and “hygienist coup d’état”.

On the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Insoumise (Unbowed France)
party said the rules were “an abuse of power” that would lead to
widespread social discrimination because not everyone had equal access
to the vaccine.

Scattered protests aside, broad public acceptance may not preclude legal
challenges. One MP from Macron’s La République En Marche party conceded
the rules contained “some constitutional and administrative fragilities”
that would need ironing out before the bill was presented to parliament
next week.

But constitutional experts have said they believe the plans are
compatible with France’s basic principles and laws. “The constitutional
imperative of preserving public health has already necessitated the
greatest assault on individual liberties since the second world war:
lockdown,” noted one expert, Jean Philippe Derosier.

Another, Dominique Rousseau, told Le Monde that “as far as the law is
concerned, there is no constitutional obstacle. The public interest is
at stake and that justifies these arbitrations between safety and liberty.”

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