July 6, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Pressure is growing in government circles and in the mainstream media in France in favor of mandatory vaccination against COVID, if not for the whole population at least for health workers who could be facing a compulsory first jab by September. A law to that effect is already being drafted.
This is despite French President Emmanuel Macron assuring on November 24, 2020: “I want to be clear: I will not make vaccination mandatory.”
To date, according to official statistics, some 34.5 million first doses of one of the authorized experimental COVID “vaccines” have been administered in France, for a total population of 67 million inhabitants. The authorities have been repeating that 80 percent of the total population, or 90 percent of adults and teenagers, should be vaccinated in order to attain herd immunity, regardless of natural prior infection with SARS-CoV-2, questions about the inefficacy of the jabs against certain variants such as the “Indian” or “Delta” mutation that is now gaining ground in France, severe illness and COVID deaths of fully vaccinated individuals, and severe side-effects, including death, following the vaccination.
A total of 36 percent of the French population have been fully vaccinated with a Pfizer or Moderna experimental mRNA jab or the AstraZenenca or Johnson & Johnson genetically modified adenovirus shot.
In exactly the same way as last year, at the approach of summer, the number of deaths attributed to COVID in France has fallen steadily since the end of April, and is now down to an average of 26 deaths per day over the last seven days, with the elderly and frail being the most frequent victims. Nevertheless, authorities are attributing the improving situation to the vaccine rollout.
Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in nursing homes for the elderly are also being blamed on health workers and other employees in contact with the public who have refused the jab to date — and there are many, as about 40 percent of hospital workers and 46 percent of rest-home workers have refused to receive the experimental anti-COVID shot.
On June 23, the French Academy of Medicine published a statement lamenting the impossibility of reaching the goal of vaccinating 80 percent of the population by October, the required level, it said, to “avoid a resurgence of the epidemic.” At the same time, other officials are warning that the Delta variant could lead to a “fourth wave” by the end of July. Most of these predictions — such as the announcement of a new hecatomb after the lifting of many COVID restrictions since the beginning of June — are not confirmed by the facts, but play a marked role in maintaining fear among the general population.
However, public vaccination centers have registered a decrease in appointments: In the last days of June only, official announcements stated that 300,000 possible appointments had found no takers. That is when the government started brandishing the threat of mandatory jabs.
In fact, in the middle of last week, the mainstream media and social networks were full of reports about a probable universal obligation for all citizens above 12 years of age in France by the end of summer. Perhaps in the face of quite obvious backlash on social media, by Friday, July 2, health minister Olivier Véran promised the obligation would be for health workers only — while at the same time announcing that a parliamentary consultation is now underway regarding a universal obligation.
In a country that has a marked proportion of vaccine skeptics, surveys are also being published saying that more than half of the population is in favor of mandatory COVID vaccination for health workers. But skeptics say this would be but a first step toward a general obligation.
Last Sunday, the mainstream daily “Le Journal du Dimanche” published an op-ed by 96 medical doctors, a number of whom were seen repeatedly on television over the last 18 months supporting COVID restrictions and offering the most dramatic predictions regarding the COVID crisis. The op-ed supported such an obligation for health workers:
To put an end to the pandemic as soon as possible, to avoid a fourth wave with its human, social and economic consequences, all citizens who have no contraindication must be vaccinated against COVID-19. Because it is an ethical duty to protect the vulnerable people in their care, all caregivers must be vaccinated.
On Twitter, the “conflict of interests” of the signatories were assessed; together, they have received over €8.8 million ($10.4 million) from the pharmaceutical industry over the last years, while only 14 of the signatories received less than €1,000. The 10 highest paid have received money from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and/or Johnson & Johnson, according to official data. Fifty signatories have received financial gratifications from vaccine producers at one time or another.
To date in Europe, only Italy has made COVID “vaccination” compulsory for its health workers. Doctors, nurses and others who refuse the jab risk losing their job or being relegated to administrative tasks. Nevertheless, 45,000 professionals are still refusing to be vaccinated, and a collective lawsuit has been initiated by some 300 of them, with results expected by July 14. The question is, of course: Can the health sector do without so many of its professionals who can’t be easily replaced?
Now questions are being raised in France as to how “refractory” health professionals would be punished for not complying with the law that many expect will be adopted in September, while the spokesman for the government has suggested the law might be submitted to Parliament before the end of July. But there are no clear answers as yet regarding the associated sanctions.
Proponents of the move argue that 11 vaccines are already compulsory in France for newborns during the first two years of life since 2018, and without these, it is impossible for children to be accepted to daycare, school, or collective activities. The COVID shot, however, is not technically a vaccine at all, but a biological agent that is still in an experimental phase that modifies the activity inside the recipients’ cells, making them produce a (toxic) component of the coronavirus, and besides its numerous registered adverse effects, its long-term effects are completely unknown.
As for general mandatory COVID “vaccines,” they are now a common subject of conversation in the media. Former Education and Justice Minister François Bayrou went on record Sunday in Le Figaro saying: “Vaccination is the only dam against what is coming, what is threatening to happen, that there will be a fourth wave, why not a fifth wave. I always thought it would end with the collective decision to make vaccination mandatory, like the eleven vaccinations we give babies at birth.” He also added to the climate of terror by saying that he is now afraid that a new strain of the virus might wreak havoc among the young, even though the victims whose deaths are attributed to the coronavirus are consistently among the old and very old.
Several senators declared July 1 during a senate session in Paris that they favored a universal vaccine mandate for all citizens between ages 24 and 59 — even though risks associated with the jab are higher than those of COVID among the younger population.
One day later, on Friday, Dominique Le Guludec, president of the “Higher Health Authority” (one of the many public health institutions in France, this one tasked with “scientific” missions), stated in several interviews that she favored “mandatory vaccination for all citizens over 12 years of age.”
This increasing insistence is using intimidation tactics, with more and more politicians, such as Senator Bernard Jomier, putting pressure on the government. They say it is the younger generations who are putting the elderly at risk of a new wave of deaths by fall, who will likely cause the need for new lockdowns and lasting restrictions, and generally putting the blame for new limits to personal freedoms on the “selfish” rejection of the “vaccine.”
“Let’s imagine that we get a new wave — and I hope we don’t — when schools reopen in September or in the fall … I believe that the French would not understand that we might need to consider closing restaurants and shops because 20 percent of the French would have decided not to get the vaccine,” said health minister Olivier Véran on Tuesday morning during a radio interview.
Other threats are also being made, such as making the vaccine passport that is currently required for large-scale public meetings compulsory for smaller meetings, movie theaters, restaurants, and the like.