French ‘world’s most reluctant’ to take Covid vaccine as debate rages over making it compulsory

France debates making Covid vaccine compulsory as polls suggests French world's most reluctant to take it

Credit: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP

A debate has erupted in France over whether a Covid vaccine should be made compulsory after a poll suggested that the French were among the most reluctant in the world to take it.

The vaccine issue has leaped to the fore following the announcement by Pfizer of one that is 90 per cent effective against Covid.

While it sparked global optimism about finally vanquishing the coronavirus, an Ipsos poll of 15 countries put France at the bottom of the table in terms of vaccine acceptance. Only 54 per cent of French people said “I would get it” compared to 73 per cent overall and 80 per cent in the UK, according to the poll of 18,500 people. India came top.

The main reasons for reticence cited were fear of side effects, rushed clinical trials, a lack of concern about contracting the virus and a blanket refusal among some to take any vaccines at all.

Given the reluctance, Yannick Jadot, a French Green MEP, said he was for making the vaccine compulsory. “We cannot today allow ourselves to extend the period of confinement, of the country’s cultural, social and economic meltdown,” he told MPs.

The opposition Socialists also backed the idea once the vaccine had been “validated by the World Health Organisation”.

The opposition Right was less categorical, saying it was for a “massive vaccination campaign” that was not compulsory. Far-Right leader Marine Le Pen came out against, saying it was up to the individual to decide. The far-Left France Unbowed party also said it was a “false good idea” and risked increasing the level of “scepticism and conspiracy theories” among the French.

As France reportedly prepares to launch a massive vaccine campaign, its government is sitting on the fence on whether it should be compulsory. 

The health ministry said it was better to build public “trust” and that taking the vaccine should “pass more through demonstration than obligation”.

Marc Fesneau, minister in charge of parliamentary relations from President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling LREM party, said that while he personally agreed with Mr Jadot the matter required debate.

France’s higher health council, a government advisory group, this week came out against making a Covid vaccine compulsory for “the general public and health workers”. 

“Vaccines are not compulsory in France bar for newborns for 11 vaccines,” said member Professor Elisabeth Bouvet. “The problem is what do you do with people who refuse to be vaccinated? After all, we’re not going to send them prison for that. And there are lots of them,” she told Le Parisien.

France debates making Covid vaccine compulsory given Gallic reticence

Credit:  DADO RUVIC/Reuters

She stressed the importance of total transparency and a massive awareness campaign to avoid the “fiasco” of trying to get the French to take a vaccine against the H1N1 virus in 2009.

Currently, she said the council’s advice is to vaccinate the vulnerable elderly in care homes and offer it to health workers followed by people between the ages of 65 to 75.

Unlike Spain, which has ordered 20 million doses, France has not pre-ordered any of the Pfizer vaccines. The government however on Wednesday insisted the French would have access to it via the 200 million doses pre-ordered by the European Union with another 100 million earmarked as optional.

Asked why the French were so reluctant to take a vaccine, historian Laurent-Henri Vignaud, said it sprung from wider Gallic scepticism “in the government on the one hand and the pharmaceutical industry and industrial vaccine production system on the other”.

The French were, he told BFMTV, among the most dissatisfied with their government’s handling of the health crisis and thus their reluctance was also a “political” vote of no confidence.

Another poll of 2,000 French by the Bordeaux university hospital found that acceptance varied widely according to the vaccine’s proven effectiveness and provenance with Europe inspiring the most confidence and China the least.