Paris likely to scrap vaccine passports before July, says French health minister

02/04/2022 / By Ramon Tomey

The health minister of France claimed that the government will likely scrap Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine passports before July.

During a Feb. 2 interview with BFMTV, Health and Solidarity Minister Olivier Veran said there is a high chance vaccine passports will be dropped before the summer. “The vaccine passport will have an end – and based on the current dynamic of the pandemic, it is likely that this end will come well before the month of July,” he told the station.

Despite Veran’s optimistic outlook, he said that certain prerequisites still need to be met before any talk of repealing vaccine passports can proceed.

“When we have emptied intensive care units (ICUs) and liberated space for patients who would normally be in [intensive care], when non-COVID-related healthcare in France no longer needs postponing and when there is no new variant circulating – then the purpose of the vaccine passport will be completely debatable and we will be able to scrap it.”

According to the health minister, seven million French citizens are at risk of invalidating their vaccine passports unless they get a COVID-19 booster dose by Feb. 15. This has led to the proliferation of forged vaccine passes. Vieran continued that French authorities had detected 300,000 fake vaccine passports and will deactivate these in the coming days.

The minister reiterated the need for citizens to be vaccinated and boosted. “At the very least, people should receive one dose of the [COVID-19] vaccine,” said Veran. He also mentioned findings by scientists and advisers that the immune system must have been exposed at least thrice from either vaccines or infection to effectively provide protection.

Analysis: Vaccine passport relegates unvaccinated French to second-class citizens

The French government adopted the vaccine passport in January, taking effect on Jan. 24. This superseded the earlier sanitary pass which considered vaccination, recent recovery from infection or a negative COVID-19 test result as a prerequisite for entering certain establishments. The sanitary pass had been deemed valid until Jan. 17 in preparation for the new measure the following week.

The vaccine passport is now required before entering dining establishments, cultural venues, sports facilities and shopping centers. It is also a prerequisite for boarding domestic flights, long distance trains and coaches. Only hospitals and aged care facilities accept the old sanitary pass that considers a negative COVID-19 test result.

The vaccine passport was originally set to expire in July, but Veran’s remark brought up the possibility of seeing the mandate being prematurely repealed. However, an analysis pointed out that the vaccine passport relegates the unvaccinated in France to second-class citizens.

LifeSiteNews Paris correspondent Jeanne Smits denounced France’s vaccine passport in a Jan. 28 piece. She pointed out that the country’s COVID-19 regulations “have reached a new level of tyranny” with the vaccine passport’s effectivity. According to Smits, business owners have been the foremost victim of the vaccine passport requirement. (Related: Analysis: France’s vaccine pass turns the unvaxxed into second-class citizens.)

“Despite government assurances that the economy is doing well and that the catering and leisure sectors are being saved by the vaccine pass, more and more reports are coming out from owners and managers of such businesses who are seeing their customer base shrink visibly. Many expect to be forced to close their doors in the near future if nothing changes,” she wrote.

“Some suggest that the vaccine pass will be lifted closer to the presidential election in April, so that [French President Emmanuel] Macron may benefit from the positive fallout of such a decision. But it remains that there are no legal requirements for the mandate to be lifted. This is being left to the appreciation of a government that has lied and lied again since the beginning of the [COVID-19] crisis.”