PARIS (AP) – As governments across Europe began their vaccination plans against the virus this weekend with fanfare, France has taken a more discreet approach due to widespread skepticism among citizens around vaccines.
After the first shots were fired in the arm of Mauricette, a 78-year-old woman in a long-term care unit near Paris, on Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron called on his compatriots: “Let’s trust researchers and our doctors. We are the nation of the Enlightenment and (Louis, the pioneer of the vaccine) Pasteur. Reason and science should guide us. “
However, many of his compatriots are worried. They remember the French health scandals of recent decades, including those involving mismanaged vaccines. They fear that coronavirus vaccines have been developed too quickly, are intended to benefit large pharmaceutical companies or risk long-term side effects that the world will only discover in years to come.
France has lost more lives to the virus than most countries, and its economy – one of the largest in the world – has been hit hard by two blockages of the virus. Doctors hope that the hesitation of the French vaccine will disappear as more people are vaccinated.
Dr. Jean-Jacques Monsuez, a 65-year-old cardiologist at a nursing home in northeastern Paris, was France’s second beneficiary on Sunday. After he and several elderly patients were injected, he said, “they are vaccinated, we are vaccinated, we are all in the same boat. And the boat can’t sink.
“And around the boat there is a country that cannot sink.”
Politicians on France’s far-right and far-left have raised concerns about the vaccine, but polls commissioned by the national health agency suggest skepticism also comes from some moderate voters.
Justine Lardon walks with a crutch after suffering severe side effects from a hepatitis B vaccine in 2010 and is reluctant to get vaccinated against the virus. She told the regional newspaper Le Progres that she supports vaccination, but is concerned that doctors do not pay enough attention to individual health problems.
“If (the vaccine) can eliminate the epidemic, it’s great, but I don’t want a vaccine that is a time bomb,” she says.
The French government has been cautious in its messages, eager to make sure it is not seen as forcing public vaccination. Instead, the authorities rely on doctors to convince patients that the vaccine is in their best interests and that of the country.
Macron reiterated on Sunday that the vaccine will be free – and not mandatory.
France’s first vaccination was not broadcast on live television, as elsewhere, and no government minister participated. No senior official said they were still receiving the vaccine, insisting they should go to the most vulnerable first.
In a country with a large population, including many with cognitive impairments, the government has come under pressure from the families concerned to develop extensive guidelines for gathering consent from patients to nursing homes before vaccination.
However, many French people are eager to get vaccinated as soon as they can.
“I’m very excited,” Mauricette said when she told him she was the first in France to receive the vaccine. “You’re a star,” said the doctor who administered it, after gently folding Mauricette’s sleeve down over the small bandage on her arm.
“It simply came to our notice then. She said “yes, I am prepared for anything to avoid getting the disease,” said Dr. Samir Tine, head of geriatrics at his unit in Sevran, northeast of Paris.
“It’s an important day,” Tine said. “We are very eager to have a new weapon at our disposal and we are eager to rediscover our normal life.”
France reported the highest number of virus infections in Western Europe and among the highest death toll, at 62,573 lost. Nearly a third died in nursing homes, so the government decided to administer the vaccine first to the elderly, as well as at-risk health workers.
Noting that France’s infections are rising again in some regions, especially among the elderly in rural areas, Health Minister Olivier Veran warned in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday that pressure on hospitals could begin again. to grow and said the government is not ruling out a third deadlock.
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