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The French government has been accused of pandering to anti-vaccines after figures showed that only a few hundred people had received a needle stick several days after the country’s vaccine program began.
Health officials said France is preparing for “a marathon, not a sprint” and that they are doing so slowly, in part, due to high levels of public skepticism about the vaccine.
Only about 40% of people in France have said they are willing to get vaccinated, according to a recent survey. The number has fallen since October, when just over half of the French said they were happy to be vaccinated. The willingness to receive the vaccine is reported to be 77% in Britain and 69% in the United States.
France began administering the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on Sunday, starting with nursing home staff and residents and those considered at risk of developing severe symptoms of the virus. It is the only country that insists that people who were offered the vaccine give their consent in writing after being informed of possible contraindications.
However, fewer than 100 people were vaccinated in the first three days. By Wednesday night, only 332 people had received the vaccine, according to Health Ministry officials. The ministry has said the goal is to vaccinate 1 million elderly and at-risk people in January, requiring more than 31,200 vaccinations every day.
Health Minister Olivier Véran admitted that France was vaccinating more slowly than other countries and suggested it was a deliberate policy to allow an information campaign rather than being the result of a lack of vaccines or a logistical failure.
“We have the same number of vaccine doses as our German neighbors, we have the same goals and we will get the same results,” Véran told French television. “It’s taking a while to take off … I don’t confuse speed with haste,” he added.
President Emmanuel Macron and ministers have promised that the vaccine will not be mandatory and officials have assured the public that a list of those who refuse to receive the Covid-19 vaccine will not be compiled. However, Macron said that people should be guided by “reason and science.” “The vaccine is not mandatory. Trust our scientists and doctors, ”he said.
In his New Year’s speech on Thursday, Macron vowed to avoid “unjustifiable delays” in vaccines, but also took a defensive note, saying he would not let “anyone play with the security” of the campaign.
Axel Kahn, a prominent geneticist and director of the National League Against Cancer, told Europe 1 radio that France’s vaccination strategy was wrong. “It is not adapted to a situation that is so dangerous,” he said.
Philippe Juvin, head of the emergency room at the Georges-Pompidou hospital in Paris, agreed. “As an individual, I would like to get vaccinated to set an example and show people that we don’t die from the vaccine, we die from Covid. And when we don’t die, we can get serious forms that are very disabling, ”Juvin told CNews television.
Opposition leaders said the slowness of the vaccination program made France the “fool” of Europe. Damien Abad, leader of the center-right opposition Les Républicains in the Assemblée Nationale, demanded an urgent meeting with the Minister of Health.
In a letter, other critics of the opposition wrote: “Mass vaccination is the definitive means for our country to emerge from the damaging economic situation caused by the health crisis. However, France is vaccinating 10,000 times slower than the UK. “
They added: “France cannot be one of the last countries to be vaccinated, and yet that is the panorama we are facing today.”
Alain Fischer, the government official who oversees France’s vaccination program, told Europe 1 that the country had chosen to prioritize the elderly and vulnerable, as opposed to healthcare professionals, as in other countries. “There is no good or bad choice … These are small details that will seem ridiculous in two or three months,” he said.
Critics say this hesitation is fueling conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine sentiment. Nathan Peiffer-Smadja, an infection specialist at Bichat Hospital in Paris, said the scientific data was clear. “The vaccine is safe and effective. Like many of my colleagues, I believe that we should administer vaccines faster to control the epidemic more quickly. At the rate we are going, we will still be locked in in 2022, ”he tweeted.
France reported 26,457 new confirmed cases on Wednesday in 24 hours, but attributed the increase to increased testing. There were 304 deaths at the hospital. The number of positive tests is still low at 2.9%.
