Anne-Elisabeth Moutet said the French President’s late intervention in the disastrously slow start to the vaccine roll-out may not have been enough to “immunise him against defeat in the 2022 election”. Mr Macron was forced to step in after initially deciding to tread warily in one of the world’s most vaccine-sceptical countries.
His belated demands for the vaccination process to be sped up came after heavy criticism of France’s slow start which saw it lag behind neighbours such as Britain and Germany.
France has now stepped up its programme by widening the first target group to include more health workers and cutting red tape to simplify a cumbersome process to deliver shots more quickly.
Writing in the Telegraph, Ms Moutet said: “It’s not done in France to own up to a cock-up. But this was compounded by the decision, at every level, to appease French anti-vaxxers.”
She continued: “Our health minister, alone in the world, concocted a 45-page ‘vaccination codebook’ that made it mandatory to obtain consent during a GP visit, after which four days of ‘retraction time’ were required before anyone was actually vaccinated.
“Meanwhile, the Minister decided against opening vaccination centres and also refused to let pharmacists take part, even though they routinely administer flu jabs.
“A confidential report predicted over 30 percent wastage of vaccine doses, but made no recommendations (by contrast, the Israelis decided to vaccinate all comers, rather than let doses go to waste).
“Instead, French vaccination authorities were trotted out to explain that a ‘slow pace’ was much better to ‘study effects’.”
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Ms Moutet added: “On Friday, 34,305 people were vaccinated – making the French target of one million by the end of January still unlikely, but closer. By Saturday, France had vaccinated a mere 0.12 per cent of her population.
“Whether it will vaccinate Emmanuel Macron against defeat in the 2022 election remains to be seen.”
Health Minister Olivier Veran has vowed to “accelerate and simplify our vaccination strategy”.
He said 300 vaccination centres would be operational from next week after initially ruling out such centres.
France received an initial 500,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is due to receive an additional 500,000 per week.
It will also get 500,000 doses per month of the Moderna vaccine now it has been given regulatory approval by the European Medicines Agency.
France recorded 20,177 new coronavirus cases and 171 more deaths yesterday.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in France now stands at 2,767,312, while the death toll has reached at 67,599 – the seventh highest in the world.