The Senate seized the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices after a petition calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the subject.
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The approach aims to “respond to concerns”. Following the success of a petition on the side effects of vaccines against Covid-19, thehe Senate decided to enter the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (Opecst), Wednesday, February 9.
A petition, online since January 12, demanded the creation of a senatorial commission of inquiry into the side effects of vaccines. It totaled 33,600 signatures in one month, far, however, from 100,000 signatures needed to compel the Senate to consider it. Corn “noting the strong momentum of signatures”and to prevent this threshold from being reached during the suspension of parliamentary work at the end of the month, the conference of presidents of the Senate has decided to take up the matter without delay.
Rather than establishing a commission of inquiry, the Senate’s social affairs commission chose to appeal to Opecst, a body composed of 18 deputies, 18 senators, and a scientific council of 24 people. The president of the social affairs commission, Catherine Deroche (LR), affirms that “through its practice of controversy and its ability to mobilize the scientific community in its diversity, the Office seemed to us to create the conditions for a serene examination of these subjects”.