Between 20, the country has reported over 24,000 cases of measles, including 10 deaths.
A major reason for the outbreak is the French are the biggest vaccine skeptics in the world.
Seth Berkley from Gavi, a nonprofit vaccine alliance, told NPR.
One the studies, from Britain, calculated that one influenza death would be averted for every eight staff members vaccinated.
But if that were correct, vaccinating the estimated 1.7 million health care workers employed in long-term care in the United States should prevent 212,500 flu deaths a year among residents.
The lead author of the British study that concluded eight vaccinated health workers would avert one flu death defended the work in a commentary the journal published with De Serres’s article.
Andrew Hayward, of University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, argued among other things that the seniors his group studied were getting 24-hour care.