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<a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/15/france-achieves-record-covid-jabs-with-macrons-big-stick-approach">theguardian.com</a>
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<h1 class="reader-title">France achieves record Covid jabs with
Macron’s ‘big stick’ approach</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Jon Henley</div>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">5-7 minutes</div>
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<p>Within 72 hours of the French learning they would soon
need to be <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/12/france-mandates-covid-health-pass-for-restaurants-and-cafes"
data-link-name="in body link">vaccinated or tested to go
to the cafe</a>, more than 3 million had booked
appointments and France had broken its vaccination record,
administering 800,000 shots in a single day.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/15/france-protests-clashes-with-police-on-bastille-day-amid-anger-at-tighter-covid-rules"
data-link-name="in body link">20,000 demonstrators
nationwide protested</a> against what some called a
“dictatorship”.</p>
<figure id="57dbe1e2-721a-46dc-bbfa-713492abeaf6"></figure>
<p>Polls show more than 65% public support for the range of
measures <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/12/france-mandates-covid-health-pass-for-restaurants-and-cafes"
data-link-name="in body link">unveiled by Emmanuel
Macron on Monday</a>, 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”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><u>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.</u></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The big stick approach to vaccination, which goes further
than that adopted by most governments, has had an
immediate impact on take-up.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<figure id="64be6dc7-d07a-47c4-92a8-8ef4822da62b"></figure>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<figure id="4b6d3453-7db3-4718-9883-6192bea7466b"></figure>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
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