The French Senate is set to vote on a bill that would make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for large swaths of its population.
Life hasn’t been easy for the non-vaccinated in France since the out roll of the Green Pass — France’s vaccine passport system — and the outlook may become increasingly worse for vaccine refusers as a French senator is about to table a bill that would mandate COVID-19 vaccination for all citizens aged 24 to 59.
According to the Pasteur Institute, the age group was chosen because over 90 percent of people infected with COVID-19 are under the age of 60 in France.
The Institute calculated that among 12-17 year-olds, a 30 percent vaccination rate was needed, and among 18-59s, some 70 percent would be necessary. In contrast, for people over the age of 60, a vaccination rate of over 90 percent was deemed necessary.
The Senate issued a report from its Common Mission of Information on Thursday, claiming the regulation would be instrumental in flattening the 4th wave and lowering hospitalization rates and deaths.
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The measure follows a Sept. 14 mandate that requires all 2.5-million healthcare workers, hospital staff, paramedics, social care workers, and private physicians in the country to be inoculated. This act has led to the dismissal of at least 3000 workers who have refused vaccination.
On Monday, Senator Bernard Jomier proposed the mandate that would make France the first country in the world to enforce vaccination on virtually all of its citizens by January 1, 2022. No exemptions are being afforded.
Jomier, who is a member of the Socialist Party, is also Vice-Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee and a member of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices, Social Security Assessment and Control Mission, and an ecologist, who managed to add the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to a list of 11 other mandated vaccines listed under Article L3111-1 of France’s Public Health Code (PHC).
The PHC already mandates vaccinations for measles, mumps, antidiphtheritic, antitetanus, antipoliomyelitis, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis virus type b, invasive pneumococcal infections, serogroup c meningococcus, and rubella.
Citizens who refuse to take the vaccine may face fines ranging from 135 euros ($US156.00) up to 1500 euros (US$1,735.00) under Article 519 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure.
Jomier has always been an outspoken opponent against alternative therapeutic treatments like hydroxychloroquine in combating COVID-19. Last year he confronted infectious disease expert Professor Didier Raoult on the matter saying, “Today, it seems that most countries, from the United States to Japan, from South Korea to Germany to China, do not recommend this treatment, so it seems science has spoken. The list of countries that do not recommend or even advise against the use of hydroxychloroquine is extremely long. I have cited just a few countries. […] It is noted that throughout the world, this treatment is no longer used.”
The Senate will discuss the proposed amendment to the PHC on October 13 before sending it to the Assembly.
