Now, as the delta version spreads across the continent, threatening to provoke another round of lockdowns at the height of summer, some leaders are bringing sticks.
In the early hours of Monday, France’s parliament passed a law requiring “health passes” showing evidence of vaccination or negative PCR tests to be used to enter restaurants, bars and travel on long-distance trains and planes starting in August. ” is needed.
As French President Emmanuel Macron explained in mid-July, when he announced the legislation, “we will extend as many health passes as possible to immunizations as much as possible.” He also said vaccination would be required for health workers from September 15 and indicated the possibility of making the shots mandatory for all if the pandemic worsens.
The latest is a number of restrictions barring the uneducated from the spheres of social life that were once unimaginable in Western democracies but are now becoming common. The move has sparked protests and restarted the debate as to whether a shot should be left to individual choice or is required by the state for the collective good.
“It will be very interesting to see how exactly they are [Covid-19 certificates] tolerated because in March 2020, no one thought you could put a lockdown in the western country and yet that’s exactly what happened,” said Dr. Oliver Watson, a researcher on COVID-19 transmission modeling at Imperial College London told CNN.
It is also unclear whether forcing people to get the vaccines will work.
Watson said, “Previous studies looking at the impact of vaccine mandates are unlikely to account for the myriad of reasons why vaccine hesitancy related to COVID-19 is very different to say childhood vaccination mandates for measles.” Will be.”
Will the mandate work?
Not everyone is behind the patchwork of vaccine requirements. More than 160,000 took part in a protest against France’s COVID-19 measures on Saturday, calling on the government to repeal the new rules.
Upon hearing of the plan, Axel Miyaka Mia of Paris became furious. “I’m completely against it,” he told CNN on Tuesday. Not that Miyaka Mia has taken the pandemic lightly. He has spent the last year worrying about the health of his parents and elderly family members.
By wielding sticks, the French government “will make many people feel like they have to get vaccinated for some normal life,” he said. But Miyaka Miya won’t be getting the shot anytime soon. His workplace does not require him to be vaccinated and can live his life as he sees fit according to the current regulations as it does not apply to small shops.
Experts say that it can be difficult to determine the impact of COVID certificates on vaccine intake, as such measures are “usually accompanied by more coverage in the media and more discussion around vaccination, which may lead to changing levels of uptake.” Could be the reason,” Watson noted.
The issue of vaccine hesitancy in some European countries is years old, and “I don’t think the government’s efforts have dealt with it,” said Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, a public health specialist and epidemiologist at Queen Mary University London.
“I think most successful vaccine programs require an understanding of vaccine hesitancy as distinct from anti-vax sentiment,” she told CNN. “Tackling vaccine hesitation requires community engagement to truly understand and address the causes, rather than dismissing people as ignorant or selfish.”
It has a lot of doubts about the efficacy of the COVID-19 certification schemes when faced with the Delta version. “With the previous variants, we could achieve herd immunity with a higher level of vaccination, but currently we are dealing with the delta variant with higher fertility rates (the average number of people who will be infected with the virus),” she said. Said. Said.
As a result, Gurdasani estimates that 85% of the population will need vaccination to achieve herd immunity. “Even with high levels of vaccination, we are not going to stop the outbreak” without other mitigation, she said, such as investment in better filtration of the indoor environment and changes in culture that affect the indoor environment. Prefers socializing rather than outside.
vaccination of youth
In France, people aged 10 to 29 accounted for more than half of new cases for the week of July 7. Germany has also seen an increase in positive cases among youth groups, as well as a decrease in vaccinations in recent weeks.
Germany’s politicians have vowed not to implement the mask mandate, and it has not launched vaccination incentives pushed by neighboring countries – although some German states have been fully vaccinated in bars or restaurants without recently testing negative. can enter the virus, Berit Lang, an epidemiologist at Germany’s Helmholtz Center for Infection Research, told CNN.
But the country has been seeing an increase in positive cases in younger age groups, as well as a decrease in vaccinations in recent weeks. “Epidemiologists are saying we need to vaccinate against this trend otherwise we [could] There is a fourth wave similar to the UK,” she said in reference to skyrocketing cases in the UK, which saw 46,558 test positive for the virus on Tuesday. Germany saw less than 2,000 cases on the same day.
While vaccination rates for younger age groups are generally lower because they have only become eligible after older groups, there is growing concern that some young people have become complacent about getting the shot.
In England, one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, Prime Minister Boris Johnson loosened almost all COVID-19 restrictions last Monday, while also announcing that full vaccinations would enter nightclubs by the end of September. The condition would be “when all people over the age of 18 have the chance to be double jawed.”
“While we can see the enthusiasm of millions of young people to find jobs, we need even more young adults to find a security that will be of immense benefit to you – your family and friends. And so I would remind everyone that some of life’s most important pleasures and opportunities are likely to depend more on vaccination,” Johnson warned.
A government source told CNN on Sunday that the UK government is now considering making proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all events with more than 20,000 attendees.
The source said the idea is still in its “early stages” but if the plans are confirmed, the English Premier League is expected to have an “early adoption”.
Experts felt a note of hypocrisy in leaders targeting young people with restrictions on entry into places such as nightclubs. “I think the problem is that many of these countries have completely downplayed the impact of COVID-19 on young people,” Gurdasani said. She noted in the UK, three-quarters of all people living with chronic Covid symptoms were in the younger age group.
Meanwhile, the chances of Miyaka Miya getting the jab are close to zero. Instead he plans to join the upcoming protests against France’s health measures. “I think they [the government] really stole our freedom,” he said.
CNN’s Tara John reported and wrote from London. CNN’s Simon Bouvier and Xiaofei Xu reported from Paris. CNN’s Nicola Rutolo contributed to this report.
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