The Fismes hospital center, in Marne, has decided to suspend the “golden syringe” competition aimed at encouraging vaccination against flu and Covid-19. A decision following a tweet from a MEP.
This lottery will, to say the least, have made people talk about it. At the Fismes hospital center (Marne), the launch of the vaccination campaign against influenza and Covid-19 was accompanied, this year, by an astonishing controversy. His name? The “golden syringe”.
As reported by France 3 Grand Est and Le Parisien, this competition organized by hospital management allowed any newly vaccinated person to participate in a lottery. The prize: a basket filled with pink Reims biscuits from Fossier, worth 100 euros.
A “joke” worthy of the parody news site “Le Gorafi”, according to National Rally (RN) MEP Virginie Joron. A form of “blackmail”, for certain Fismois people whose testimony France 3 was able to collect. Surprised by the scale of the controversy, the Fismes hospital center finally announced on Tuesday, November 19, that it was suspending its competition, which it described as “inappropriate”.
“A Fossier basket in the name of science”
After the competition was posted on the access portal to Fismes hospital, this Saturday, November 16, RN MEP Virginie Joron took over her X account to question its merits.
“I thought it was a joke from @le_gorafi, but no, it's 2024 in Marne in the Grand Est Region. The price? A Fossier basket in the name of science”, protested the elected official. A message taken up, just a handful of minutes after its publication, by a very large part of the anti-vaccine community on social networks.
At issue here: the link between vaccination and the establishment of a reward in exchange for the injection. A point of tension on which some residents of the town, and even several local health professionals, also seem to have agreed.
“(…) We cannot play with people's health and it is up to us to do what is necessary and to convince people so that they get the best treatment, and we do not need for this, to offer gifts”, judges Cindy Mazzini, pharmacist in Fismes, at the microphone of France 3.
In a press release made public this Tuesday, November 19, the hospital management apologizes to the population and decides to directly suspend the lottery thus pointed out.
“The objective was to mobilize as many people as possible around an essential subject, by highlighting the importance of vaccination”, specifies the hospital, before continuing: “The CH of Fismes would like to emphasize that this initiative was part of an approach that respected the importance of vaccination.”
VACCINE: THE FRENCH PARADOX
The hospital also wanted to express its regrets over a communication campaign deemed, a posteriori, “inappropriate”.
