In Guadeloupe and Martinique, reluctance to vaccine mingles with mistrust of the word of the State – archyde

In the grounds of the Pointe-à-Pitre hospital center, fervent opponents and silent supporters of the Covid-19 vaccination meet every day. Engaged in an indefinite strike against their suspension for refusing to comply with the requirements of the health pass, several dozen staff members from the only university hospital (CHU) in Guadeloupe occupy the entrance to the site. Inside, health professionals vaccinated or cured of the virus, who represent 85% of the workforce, according to the regional health agency (ARS), remain with patients.

Their face-to-face is a miniature model of the social conflict underway in the department, in particular launched by some of the 1,400 caregivers suspended on the island, and firefighters, also concerned by the vaccination obligation. After five days punctuated by abuses and clashes between young Guadeloupe and the police on roadblocks erected on the roads, a relative calm had settled, Tuesday, November 23, on the Guadeloupe nights. The prefecture recorded two arrests in twenty-four hours, against sixty-eight for the previous weekend alone.

A delegation received at the prefecture

The roadblocks, held during the day by the support of the collective of organizations against the vaccination obligation and the health pass, have remained in place. Faced with the government’s refusal to consider an exemption from the vaccine constraint for the West Indian department, opponents have not changed their strategy. The blockades will continue despite the reception, for the first time since the start of the movement in July, of a delegation of the inter-union at the prefecture.

“We were greeted as heroes for a year and a half despite the risk of contamination between us and our customers. Today we are told that we are outcasts while defending our freedom of choice “, deplores Véronique Courtois, member of the Union of Health Workers, union section of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UTS-UGTG) and suspended employee of the CHU.

The social acceptability of the vaccine campaign, aspired by the executive in Paris, is struggling to develop in Guadeloupe, where less than half of the adult population has received at least one injection, but also in Martinique. About 35% of adult residents can present a complete pattern, and a general strike, a time accompanied by roadblocks, and clashes with the authorities also began on Monday, November 22.

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