The deal was simple: get a vaccine and get back to normal life.
The deal was an unexpected success in a country with high levels of distrust about Covid-19 vaccines. It turned France into one of Europe's most vaccine-free countries, quashed street protests by government critics, and boosted the re-election bid of PresidentEmmanuelMacron. For a while, die-hard skeptics became believers.
In three months, we will all be okay, and I told myself, great, everybody will get vaccine, and we will get our freedom back. The only way I could go to the movies or visit friends in Paris was if I got vaccine.
Mr. Olissone has worked at a funeral home since the start of the Pandemic. I don't believe anymore.
The Omicron variant is straining the social contract underlying the government's fight against the virus and undermines the assumptions that Mr.Macron relied on. It's more than previous versions, it's changing what it means to be fully vaccine, it's creating new urgency about booster shots, and it's raising the hurdles to get access to a normal that is proving fleeting and illusory.
Even if vaccines aren't as effective at blocking Omicron infections, scientists believe they help keep the illness mild for most people and early studies suggest they are keeping most people out of the hospital. Although health officials still see vaccines as the path out of the Pandemic, their availability has not ended it as quickly as they would have liked.
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There is a vaccine center in Paris. Almost all of the French people have received at least two doses.
That makes it difficult for leaders to keep their citizens obeying Covid rules. In France, the stakes are high for Mr. Macron, who made a bet over the summer on the twin powers of vaccines and a health pass that allowed people, finally, to eat and socialize indoors with relative safety.
The government has not wavered despite the fact that France reported 206,243 new cases in the past 24 hours. The city of Paris announced Wednesday that mask-wearing outdoors would become mandatory, despite the city resisting pressure to impose a New Year's Eve curfew or delay the start of school.
The required delay between a second shot and a booster has been shortened. The wait has been reduced from six months to five, four and three in the past month.
"Next it will be every two weeks, I live in eastern France," said Toulisse, who was strolling on the Champs-lysées in Paris. I had a lot of hope in vaccines. I thought they were going to pull us out.
The president of the government's High Council of Public Health acknowledged the corrosive effect that Omicron has had after a relative period of peace since last summer.
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A person is checking health passes at a restaurant. The passes were part of a strategy to allow a return to normal life.
Mr. Chauvin said in an interview that the debate around vaccinations and the appearance of new variants are forcing us to redefine the social contract.
Mr. Chauvin said that France would need to focus more on civic responsibility, by urging more caution in social interactions. He said that the evolution was obvious when many people got tested before the holidays.
Stewart Chau, an analyst for the polling firm Viavoice, said public support for the government's handling of the Pandemic has started to slip. He said that the social contract would not work if there were no tangible results.
After the introduction of the health pass, the approval of the government's handling of the crisis peaked at 50 percent, but has declined in the past month, according to the Elabe polling firm.
The Omicron challenge has come at a particularly fraught time, when the government is pushing for children to bevaccinated between the ages of 5 years and 11 years.
The French have been asked to think and act for the greater good since the beginning of the Pandemic. The elderly should be protected. The vaccine stops the virus from circulating.
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France reported 208,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours.
Frédéric Worms, a French philosopher, said the introduction of vaccinations for children between 5 and 11 has made the debate over the self and the greater good sharper.
He said it could push people into a free-for-all. The fact that we would sacrifice ourselves to save our children has a strong anguish.
More than two-thirds of parents of eligible children are opposed to vaccinations, according to a poll by Elabe. The experience in the United States and other countries where a large number of children have already been vaccinations shows that side effects are rare. Many parents don't want their children to get sick from the new vaccines because the young rarely get sick from the virus.
Sandrine Gianati watched over her two sons, who were 5 and 7 years old, in a park in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. She, her husband, her relatives, and her children all had been vaccine free.
She said she did it to protect others. I accept that the unvaccinated are their own choice if they don't want to get vaccine. I don't want my children to bevaccinated for people who don't want to be.
Ninety percent of people 12 years old and over have received at least two doses of the same drug. Unvaccinated people make up the majority of those who are hospitalized or die.
Ms. Gianati doesn't want to sacrifice her children in the name of solidarity because she doesn't know the long-term effects of the new vaccines. I tell myself that I am married, have two children, have lived my life, and that if I have problems later on, that was my choice. I don't want my children to be forced to make their own decisions.
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More than two-thirds of parents of eligible children are opposed to vaccinations, according to a poll by Elabe.
Omicron seems to be shaking with people's faith in the government's handling of the Pandemic. The government's confusing and conflicting statements on the wearing of masks created deep distrust among many French.
A year ago, as France kicked off its vaccination campaign, an Ipsos poll of adults in 15 countries found that trust in a Covid-19 vaccine was lowest in France. Only 40 percent of French people said they would get vaccine, compared to 77 percent in Britain and 69 percent in the US.
The full strategy of the campaign would emerge over the following months. The president's scientific advisory panel, including Mr. Chauvin, provided clues in an April article.
They wrote that the new approach should be based on a social contract that is clear and transparent.
In July, the terms of the deal were laid out.
He said that the only way back to a normal life was by getting all French vaccinations.
The message was to get a health pass. The unvaccinated would be pushed out of public spaces gradually.
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There is a cafe in Paris. France has tightened rules on health passes and no longer allows people to get them with negative tests.
Three years ago, the Yellow Vests, a mass movement against the government's economic policies, paralyzed much of France. The government struck a winning balance between carrots and sticks.
Less than four months before the presidential elections, the government is betting that it can maintain balance in the face of Omicron. The French were asked to get their shots more quickly. The health pass will no longer be granted with negative tests, but only with proof of vaccination, as it is moving to tighten eligibility.
Prime Minister Jean Castex did not make any promises of a return to normal life. Mr. Castex said that all of this feels like a movie.
