The government published, on Sunday May 14, at the Official newspaper the decree allowing the return to work of caregivers not vaccinated against Covid-19, who had been suspended from their duties since August 2021.
“The obligation to vaccinate against covid-19 provided for by article 12 of the aforementioned law of August 5, 2021 is suspended”, specifies the decree issued during the night. It thus lifts the vaccination obligation for caregivers and authorizes their return.
The conditions of this return, which provide in particular that the suspended person be reinstated in the same post or a post ” equivalent “were defined by the government in a ministerial instruction issued two weeks ago, to give hospitals and other healthcare establishments time to prepare.
The government keeps the possibility of suspending the unvaccinated again if the pandemic starts again, by a new decree. The group of the French Communist Party in the National Assembly voted on May 4 a bill definitively repealing the obligation to vaccinate against Covid, which would prohibit any return of suspensions. But the government opposes it, and the bill has not yet been examined by the Senate.
A few thousand people affected
The exclusion of unvaccinated caregivers has inflamed social media, but the number of people affected is likely quite small. Estimates range from a few thousand, according to parcel information obtained in particular from the Ministry of Health, to “from 20,000 to 40,000 people”according to Elsa Ruillère, a leader of groups of caregivers refusing the vaccine, who became elected CGT Health.
In total, the obligation to be vaccinated was requested from 2.7 million people, whether they were in direct contact with the sick – caregivers, nurses, doctors, paramedics, home helpers, firefighters – or even indirectly, such as the administrative staff of healthcare establishments.