On the night of Tuesday 12 to Wednesday 13 July, the National Assembly rejected a key article of the bill on the Covid-19 epidemic, providing for the possibility of reinstating the health pass for “extra-hexagonal” travel. This article 2 of the “health watch and security” bill was rejected by 219 votes to 195.
After its abolition by the deputies, the health pass at the borders should however make its comeback in the Senate which will examine the bill next week. During the hearing of the Minister of Health, the LR rapporteur of the text, Philippe Bas, hinted at the construction of a new article 2.
“Does the health pass protect? The answer is no.”
Philippe Bas (quaestor of the Senate), however, still believes that the travel certificate is a guarantee of “not being contaminated or contagious” in his interview with Public Senate, which is confusing to say the least in July 2022…. (video 1 min 20)
However, the president of the Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy had been heard by the Senate on the health situation on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. To the question of the president of the social affairs commission, the LR senator Catherine Deroche, on the interest of the health pass, his answer was clear: “now that we know that vaccinated people contaminate (…) Does the pass really protect? You have the answer. The answer is no”.
A majority of French people have understood that neither the vaccination nor the negative test are guarantees against carrying, replicating or transmitting the virus.
As for Bruno Retailleau, the head of the LR group, after having agreed on June 22 on LCI that “the pass was not useful” and that he had taken his group on board in spite of everything on the vote, he says he is again in favor!
What does Article 2 provide?
The executive will be able, by simple decree until 2023, to make travel to or from overseas territories and departments as well as Corsica, conditional on the presentation of a negative test for Covid-19, a vaccination pass or a certificate of recovery. If this article were to be adopted, it would constitute, according to 10 LR senators who published a tribune, a breach of equality between French citizens according to their place of residence. Citizens living in the Republic’s overseas territories would be stigmatized and ostracized. If this article were to be adopted, it would in fact make vaccination compulsory for personnel working in the transport services concerned.
Finally, contrary to what the government wants, restrictions on movement and freedom must not be adopted by decree, without being submitted to a vote of Parliament. Parliament is the guarantor of public liberties and, as such, it cannot delegate this supreme prerogative to the government by means of a blank cheque when the current circumstances do not justify it. Parliament has always been able to react quickly and efficiently when circumstances require it.
More than ever attached to public liberties, these 10 LR senators launch a solemn appeal to all their colleagues in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to obtain the suppression of this bill.
Sanitary pass: what scientific observations?
Numerous scientific observations and publications show that this pass is largely deficient
At the level of French hospitals, data from Santé Publique France show that between November 2021 and April 2022, neither nosocomial infections nor COVID affecting caregivers have stopped, despite mandatory vaccination and the costly pass (60 million euros per month according to the French Hospital Federation) controlled at the entrances of the establishments. If the origin of the nosocomial outbreak is identified, it is mostly a patient, but visitors (13% vs. 9%) are more frequently mentioned… proof that the pass is a decoy.
As COVID is a zoonotic disease, it has been shown, for example, that the outbreak in Hong Kong was caused by the importation of infected hamsters from the Netherlands via a pet shop that imported pets in January 2022. SARS-CoV-2 infects dozens of wild and domestic species that can cross borders without a health pass.
In addition, during festivals in July 2021 in Catalonia, despite the tests, a significant proportion of vaccinated people and the wearing of masks, scientists were able to identify massive contaminations. Thus, 757 and 662 people for the first and second festival respectively were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and reported to the central health register of the Catalan health system.
Finally, at the level of international travelers, SARS-CoV-2 testing of airplane wastewater shows that mandatory testing and vaccination pass before boarding did not prevent massive importation of the Omicron variant into Europe in a French pre-published study.
In Norway, one of the first Omicron super propagating events occurred among participants, all fully vaccinated and all tested negative before a Christmas meal in Oslo!
The scientific data, the opinions of Pr Delfraissy are available but, it seems, not brought to the knowledge of some senators and deputies? Or does political logic take over?
Many French people have understood for a long time. And the mistrust towards politicians is only getting stronger.