Macron no longer ‘president of all the French’ after rejecting the unvaccinated

President Emmanuel Macron caused a stir when he said his Covid strategy was to “piss off the unvaccinated, to the bitter end”, spurning around 10 percent of the French population in the process. It’s an unusual decision for a head of state, but it could reap rewards for a presidential candidate.

The French government has made vaccination the cornerstone of its strategy in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, and its policies have convinced most people to get the jab.

Around 90 percent of the over-12s in France are fully vaccinated – 78 percent of the population overall.

In a recent interview Macron lashed out at the recalcitrant 10 percent of those eligible, calling them “irresponsible” and “non-citizens”, implying that they were putting other peoples’ lives in danger.

There is no doubt French hospitals are under strain, and health ministry data shows a large number of Covid patients in intensive care are unvaccinated. The majority of those who have died with Covid recently have not been vaccinated.

But that does not mean the unvaccinated are solely responsible for the continuing circulation of the virus and skyrocketing infection rates.

Recent research shows that while vaccination can reduce the viral load by between 30-40 percent, it does not prevent infection, and therefore transmission. Vaccination alone won’t be enough to break the fourth wave a leading researcher said in July last year.

“The government gives the impression it wants to get rid of all the responsibility [for the health crisis] and put it on the shoulders of the unvaccinated,” says political scientist Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet.