The text voted this week by the National Assembly on the vaccination pass must now be presented to the Senate before being definitively adopted. It will therefore be, surely in a few days, impossible to take the train for long distances, if one is not vaccinated. Not possible either to go to the restaurant, the cinema, the gym, in short, everywhere where the health pass was required until now. This makes the divide between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated even sharper. The decryption of sociologist Jean Viard.
franceinfo: Are there two categories of French today, as we sometimes hear people say? ?
Jean Viard: If you want, in all pandemics, there is this. When we built the plague wall across Provence, it was because we hoped that there was on one side the plague, and on the other side that it was not. In a pandemic that is still fatal, there is always the will to separate and reduce the risks. This is what must be said. So this is nothing new.
There, what is very particular in the end, is that we have a solution to protect ourselves from death, not to protect ourselves from disease. So there is this management of death which gives a much stronger stake, whereas a year ago there was no such management of death, we had all the masks, etc. had no solution, I was going to say, not to die. There, we have the solution not to die. So that increases the stake, obviously, and it also increases the tensions.
This is all that we are going through, and it will inevitably be more and more tense because at one point, I would say that the risks increase. And then, the health professionals, they will do their job and they are dedicated, they work, they treat all the sick, but at the same time, it is still tragic for them to be in absolute emergency situations then. that we could live otherwise.
franceinfo: The bill on the vaccine pass was fiercely debated by the deputies this week. The opposition deputies and senators have also asked that the project be amended, in particular an amendment for young people, that the vaccination pass is not required in the future for those under 16 years of age for school and extracurricular outings.
There was consensus on the amendment. It was adopted, but for other leisure activities, for these young people, the vaccination pass will be required. We are talking about young minors who must be vaccinated with the consent of their parents. Does this make sense? Is it consistent, is it even beneficial that these adolescents are also subject to these very strict rules?
You know, let’s remember Christmas from last year. In 2020, the young people had been brilliant. There had been no increase in illness at all when they went to see their grandparents because they had locked themselves in their house for a week. So young people are in fact hyper engaged in this battle, they are extremely responsible. We often put on a bunch of young people who are having a party and there are some, but we are not going to make a cheese out of it. But it’s very much in the minority, so that’s the first thing to say, young people are completely engaged in this battle.
So I think that here, we have to get into their own minds, that is to say that they don’t want to make grandpa, grandma ill, etc. And it is important. And basically, we give them a weapon, which they negotiate with their parents, of course, it is normal until 16 years old, since they are minors, under parental authority. But I think they are basically allowed to participate in this general fight. So me, it didn’t shock me actually.
To come back to the almost philosophical debate, at least in certain respects, around this vaccination pass, what differentiates the vaccination pass from compulsory vaccination? And besides, why does the executive stop a little in the middle of the ford?
The problem is, what are you doing for the one who doesn’t want to be vaccinated? It is all very well to declare obligations. The Republic can do it, but how does it apply? Are you going to put them in jail? Are you going to ask them a fine of 1000 euros every time they are not vaccinated? How do you do ? It’s like a salami, we are facing 5 million unvaccinated and we try to remove small slices every day to reduce the total. For their own good.
We must still remember that they are the ones who die the most, in hospitals. There are also immunosuppressive drugs. But therefore somewhere, it is also to save them, it is not simply because they risk infecting us, it is also to protect them themselves. In there, indeed, we did not go to the obligation (vaccination) because in my opinion, it is not applicable. So basically, we stuck them in a corner, so to speak, we tighten, we limit, we remove trains, stadiums, bars and restaurants. We tried to see in the world of work.
Basically, we give them back to life, as the president said, in a formula that I will leave to him, more and more impossible, to also try that the citizens remain citizens who decide, and that little by little, they say to themselves I’m going to get vaccinated. It is true that it becomes too complicated, etc. And so, basically, let the citizens give themselves a chance to join the majority group of those who are vaccinated.