FRANCE: After Emmanuel Macron announced last night that he wanted to “vaccinate everywhere”, “to vaccinate the world”, starting with caregivers, the Ministry of the Interior tells us that gendarmes and police officers will not be affected by this obligation.
Excerpts from the speech on the issue of vaccination:
“Firstly, for nursing and non-nursing staff in hospitals, clinics, retirement homes, establishments for people with disabilities, for all professionals or volunteers who work in contact with the elderly or frail, including at home, vaccination will be made compulsory without delay. “
As specified by the Ministry of the Interior, we must add to this the firefighters, but not the police. Are they not in direct contact with the population, just like the firefighters, too? The government has refrained from explaining the reasons for this choice, thus creating a break in equality.
“For all our compatriots concerned, they will have until September 15 to be vaccinated. We must start now. From September 15, checks will be made, and sanctions will be taken.”
Mentioning also the sanctions, Emmanuel Macron lets us understand that those who will be responsible for punishing the unvaccinated, could be precisely, the unvaccinated themselves.
Thus Mr. Macron exempts the police and gendarmes from the vaccination obligation. Why ? A dreadful conspiracy hypothesis comes to me: we should not upset those who, when the time comes, will be called upon to protect the nice government against the evil demonstrators.
– Laurent Mucchielli (@LMucchielli) July 13, 2021
Let us recall the obligations in question, which could lead to sanctions:
“From July 21, the health pass will be extended to places of leisure and culture. Concretely, for all our compatriots over 12 years old, it will take, to access a show, an amusement park, a concert or a festival have been vaccinated or have a recent negative test. “
“From the beginning of August – and this because we must first pass a law and promulgate it – from the beginning of August therefore, the health pass will apply in cafes, restaurants, shopping centers, as well as in hospitals, retirement homes, medico-social establishments but also in planes, trains and buses for long journeys. Here again, only the vaccinated and people tested negative will be able to access these places, whether they are also customers, users or employees. Depending on the assessment of the situation, we will ask ourselves the question of extending the health pass to other activities. “
The time of announcements is always followed by the time of exceptions, and the devil is in the details. Thus, the executive uses arguments of authority to justify its positions, ultimately giving rise to more questions than answers. However, more than ever in times of crisis, the burden of proof is on those claiming the performance of an obligation, here vaccination.
