The Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, has confirmed her intention to expand the number of compulsory vaccines to 11 strains. The decision will be announced before August 8.
The new Minister of Health has decided. 11 vaccines will soon be compulsory, against three today. Agnès Buzyn confirmed this on June 26, according to our information. She made the announcement during a meeting with representatives of patient associations. The hematologist will therefore follow the recommendations of the citizen consultation, which submitted its conclusions to his predecessor, Marisol Touraine.
With the vaccination obligation, Agnès Buzyn inherits a delicate file. Last February, the Council of State stepped up the pace. DT-Polio, which contains the three obligatory strains, must be available to everyone. He gave the government six months to act. This period expires on August 8.
The Minister of Health is determined to advance vaccine policy. Like many, she recognizes the difficulty of combining obligation and recommendation. The situation must therefore be simplified.
To set the number of essential and mandatory vaccines, Agnès Buzyn took into account the risk factors in the territory. She decided on the strains that are useful, necessary but without risk for children.
Aware of the hesitations of the general public, the Minister of Health wants to combine this expansion with more education. The aim is to remind the French of the importance of this preventive gesture.
The fear of aluminum
But for the president of France Assos Santé, Alain-Michel Ceretti, the fear of aluminum – used as an adjuvant in several vaccines – remains poorly understood at the head of state. 40% of French people express doubts about the safety of vaccines. And aluminum is at the heart of these concerns, including among certain member associations of France Assos Santé.
“I think the minister does not fully measure the fear of aluminum triggered by many French people,” he said. When we talk about expanding the number of compulsory vaccines to 11, people think that the aluminum dose will be multiplied by three or four. ” Which is not the case.
The minister will have to be persuasive to reconcile the population with vaccines. It will undoubtedly need to be clearer about the value of adjuvants and their risks. A study to be conducted by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) should help it.
Empower parents
Alain-Michel Ceretti, for his part, proposes another solution: to make the parents criminally responsible, instead of placing the weight on the doctor. “We need an exemption clause that allows parents not to have their children vaccinated,” he explains. But in return, they must both sign a waiver that indicates the medical and social consequences of not being vaccinated. This includes the inability to enter school.
Without ruling out this solution, Agnès Buzyn underlined the legal difficulties that such a proposal can pose. Difficult, in fact, to make coexist a vaccination obligation and its exemption.
One problem persists: that of vaccine stocks. Several strains are regularly victims of shortages. France Assos Santé plans to work on this subject with manufacturers and pharmacies. The minister, for her part, has more legal weapons to force the hand of manufacturers. But this work is still in progress.
GPs against obligation
Generalist teachers do not want compulsory vaccination. In a press release, the National College (CNGE) takes a stand against this measure, which it considers “simplistic and unsuitable”. According to the organization, having a compulsory diet coexist with another recommended is not, in fact, understandable. But less coercive measures would be more effective.
For the CNGE, there is nothing to prove that more obligation better protects children. This measure could even prove to be counterproductive, by increasing the level of suspicion. Which would be the case without an explanation campaign.
General practitioners therefore argue in favor of a recommended diet only, accompanied by an incentive campaign that involves health professionals. They are mostly in favor of vaccination, and their advice is listened to by parents.
>> Read our “Treatment” sheet: Vaccines, all the more effective if the entire population is vaccinated
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