The Toronto Star: France was right to restrict public access to people not fully vaccinated
Aug. 1, 2021
As I walked down Avignon Bridge last week, which Canadian schoolchildren know best from the French song “Sur le Pont d’Avignon,” I didn’t exactly dance “en rond,” or in circles, as the song goes, but I did do a mental, self-congratulatory jig, for having mobilized as early as I could to get my vaccines.
Had I not signed up for leftover vaccines and gotten my double jabs in June, I would have been barred from entering the world-famous attraction in the south of France, following new rules requiring proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours, for entry into all museums, movie theatres and attractions across France, and soon restaurants, cafés — even outdoor terraces.
While Ontario is still hemming and hawing about the implementation of vaccine passports, France, where I currently reside, has taken the bold step of making a health pass, as the passports are called, mandatory in order to access both indoor and outdoor public spaces.
Here, the virulent Delta variant has sent us officially back into our fourth wave, with the number of infections worrying health experts and forcing more than two dozen, particularly hard hit departments across the country to reinstate mandatory mask-wearing outdoors, which had ended in mid-June. For reference, France is about a month ahead of Canada.
