People using a false pass, but who agree to be vaccinated, benefit from a more flexible procedure in the vaccination centers – they can be regularized without exposing themselves to prosecution.
Officially, individuals who use a false vaccination pass must regularize their situation within 30 days after the finding of the offense. This is what the law has provided since the end of January 2022, with the vote of a text strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis. But in practice, it is requested not to take too much account of this 30-day period.
Vaccination centers are a little less observant
This is what France Info noted on February 14 by consulting documents from the Directorate General for Health. Transmitted to health professionals who are involved in the vaccination campaign, the new instruction given to the managers of the vaccination centers is to no longer control this 30-day period or to inform the police.
This simplification of the procedure is aimed at “repentants”, those people who have used a false vaccination pass to go about their business despite its illicit nature, but who end up giving up this use to return instead to a real scheme of vaccination. In exchange for their goodwill, it is done so as to remove the risk of sanction weighing on them.
Clearly, there is no longer any obligation linked to a 30-day period after being caught using a false vaccination pass. These “repentants” can therefore come whenever they want to a center without risking prosecution on the spot. The process will include on the one hand the cancellation of the fraudulent pass, and on the other hand the new vaccination procedure, with the injection this time.
Please note: this does not mean that there are no longer any sanctions against false vaccination passes, whatever the circumstances. This administrative relief concerns the case of a person defrauding the pass and going to a vaccination center to obtain the first injection, then the following ones. Apart from this case, fines can always be imposed.
This evolution of the procedure appears as an additional means of incentive for people who are still distant from the vaccination policy in France. According to the vaccination coverage data transmitted in the TousAntiCovid application, 79% of the eligible population entered the vaccination scheme, as of February 13.
This new policy occurs in a particular epidemic context, with a variant, Omicron, certainly more virulent, but whose health effects are less than those of the Delta variant. In addition, more epidemiological indicators indicate a reflux of the disease, whether it is the rate of positivity, the rate of incidence, patients in intensive care and new cases.
The 30-day repentance system had given rise to a political disagreement between the National Assembly and the Senate. It is close to what had been invented by the tax authorities to regularize certain taxpayers. The cell set up by Bercy had proved useful, by processing a few dozen files in 5 years, for amounts exceeding 10 billion euros.