The vaccination obligation is justified given the “scale of the health burden” of influenza and the “increased risk” of transmission from professionals to people receiving treatment or in care and social care settings, the independent body explains
Published 07/20/2026, 16:03.
Updated 07/20/2026, 16:31.
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An intensive care unit treating patients with severe influenza at the University Hospital Center of Guadeloupe in Le Abime, January 22, 2026. (SANDRINE GEIMARD/HANS LUCAS/AFP)
Will the vaccine soon become mandatory for all healthcare workers? The Higher Health Authority (HAS), in its long-awaited opinion published on Monday 20 July, recommends that annual influenza vaccination be made compulsory for medical and paramedical students, as well as “other specialists” I work in “medical and medical-social institutions that house elderly people who are in contact with people at risk of severe forms (persons involved in hygienic care, daily household supplies, etc.).”
To take effect, this recommendation, which has the same thrust as the Academy of Medicine report published in May, must be the subject of a decree of the Council of State defining its terms and relevant personnel. In hospitals and nursing homes, influenza vaccination was made mandatory for caregivers in 2006, but was immediately suspended by decree before it was introduced, due in part to “no excess risk among caregivers”.
This vaccination obligation must be implemented as a priority. “in nursing homes and long-term care units” because of “special vulnerability” of people housed, three quarters aged 75 or over and in contact “close, repetitive and prolonged with caregivers” the notice says.
In other appropriate settings – medical institutions, other medical and social institutions in which older people live, private practice structures – HAS recommends “gradual rollout over a two-year period with the possibility of a one-year extension within an agreed framework”in order to “to ensure the feasibility and acceptability of the measure.”
The obligation to vaccinate is justified due to “degree of health burden” flu and “increased risk” cases of its transmission by specialists to people undergoing treatment or placed in medical and medical-social institutions are explained by an independent body that provides scientific expertise in the field of healthcare to government agencies. The 2025-2026 flu caused 12,700 deaths, up from 17,900 the year before during a particularly brutal epidemic.