Mathias Wargon, head of SMUR emergencies at Delafontaine Hospital in Saint-Denis denounced Wednesday July 20 on franceinfo “populism” and “demagoguery” of La France insoumise and the Rassemblement national who demand the reintegration of non-vaccinated nursing staff “to please a whole fringe of people who are anti-vaccines”. In a notice published on Tuesday, the Academy of Medicine “firmly” opposed their reinstatement, judging that a “turnaround” would harm the “trust feeling” between caregivers and patients, without solving the hospital’s difficulties. In any event, “we are so in deep shit that we are not one person away”he quipped.
franceinfo: Should we or should we not reintegrate non-vaccinated caregivers as demanded by the LFI and the RN in particular?
France insoumise and the National Front are great specialists in scientific research. They minimize vaccination to please a whole fringe of people who are anti-vaccine. Just look on Twitter, it’s the extremes. It’s populism and demagoguery to please this fringe. It’s a complete absence of ideas about how the hospital works, about what we have to do for the hospital to work. So we are going to reinstate 700 people. This is a ridiculously low number.
Reintegration of non-vaccinated caregivers ➡️ “We all know very well that this is not going to solve the problems. This is all ridiculous. These antivax people refused to be vaccinated at a time when it was important for our patients, for us, and the maintenance of the public hospital. pic.twitter.com/nEcwFb6uSA
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) July 20, 2022
This figure of 700 people concerns nurses suspended because they have not been vaccinated. They are 12,000 people in total, including administrative staff. Isn’t their integration going to solve the hospital’s problem?
We all know very well that this will not solve the problem. If we take hospitals, clinics and follow-up care, it’s one person per establishment. It’s ridiculous. Moreover, it puts a huge doubt on vaccination.
“It’s ridiculous and it’s dangerous because it means that the next time we ask staff to get vaccinated, people will finally be told whether you get vaccinated or not, it doesn’t matter.”
Mathias Wargonat franceinfo
We can discuss the effectiveness of the vaccine, but I remind you that these people who are anti-vaccine refused to be vaccinated at a time when the vaccine was effective. At a time when it was extremely important both for our patients, both for us and both for the maintenance of the public hospital. So all the people like the LFI, like the FN who want the end of vaccination, actually want the end of the public hospital. What they want is to destroy the hospital and public health.
Do you reject their argument about the reduced effectiveness of vaccines in the transmission of the vaccine?
It’s the loss of efficiency, but it’s not the complete inefficiency. Once again, these people refused to be vaccinated at a time when the vaccine was effective. Next time, they will again refuse to be vaccinated, both against Covid and against the flu. You, patient, when you arrive at the hospital, you will have nurses, most of them nurses, not doctors, who will refuse for themselves what they inject into you. It is still extremely special.
All of that is bullshit. It really is a political story in the bad sense of the term. It has absolutely nothing to do with public health. I remember all the same that the PCF and the PS which are part of the Nupes called from the start for compulsory vaccination and this is the only tenable position.
Every arm counts. Can we do without them?
We must stop with ‘every arm counts’. We’re so screwed up that we’re not one person away. The problem does not come from a person who left, who refused to be vaccinated, who does not believe in medicine. The doctors who left do homeopathy, do health coaching, they do bullshit. You have to stop at some point. These are not the people we need. What we need are trained, paid professionals who are offered a decent quality of life at work. This is what we need.
“We have to stop with ‘every arm counts’. We are in so much trouble that we are not one person away. It is not these people that we need, but trained, paid professionals, to which we offer a decent quality of life at work, says Mathias Wargon. pic.twitter.com/n5o2e4PXpH
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) July 20, 2022
Do you applaud the opinion of the Academy of Medicine which affirmed its strong opposition to the reintegration of non-vaccinated nursing staff?
For once, the Academy of Medicine has taken firm positions, which is not the case with the Council of the Order. She says it is incompatible with the profession of caregiver. Even the decline in the effectiveness of vaccines, which is obvious since we move away from the original strain, cannot justify the reintegration of the non-vaccinated. They still say that it retains a residual effectiveness and that there is no contraindication and that in addition, it avoids serious forms and long Covids. So, at some point, you have to stop.
La France insoumise militates for the mass creation of beds and to reinvest in the public hospital…
And tomorrow, we shave for free! Who do we reopen them with? We no longer have staff and it is not by reintegrating caregivers that we will have them. It is by paying the staff better by offering them a decent quality of life at work, that is to say that they are not cut off from their vacations or weekends at the last moment, by having good professionals quality and well trained. This is how we are going to change the public hospital.
When it comes to beds, it’s a much more complex issue than just saying ‘we’re running out of beds’. We know that the beds that are lacking are not so much in the hospital as in follow-up care. They don’t talk about it because they don’t even know the problem. It is dramatic the ignorance of the hospital by all these people who talk about it.