Who is eligible for the booster vaccination campaign, with which vaccines?

• This Monday opens a new anti-Covid vaccination reminder campaign.

• As the eighth wave kicks off, the most vulnerable people are urged to get vaccinated.

• For the first time, new version vaccines, adapted to Omicron, are offered.

A new reminder.

This Monday, the vaccine recall campaign against Covid-19 begins, against a backdrop of the start of the eighth wave.

But after almost three years of coronavirus and soon two years of anti-Covid vaccination, this new phase has an unprecedented advantage.

While the pandemic has seen more than a dozen variants and Omicron, discovered ten months ago, has established itself on the globe, for the first time, health authorities will offer new vaccines version, adapted to different sub-lineages of Omicron.

What are these new serums?

Who can benefit from it and why is the timing of this recall campaign crucial?

tells you everything.

Who is eligible for this new booster dose?

While the contamination figures show the start of the eighth wave, the health authorities are opting for a targeted vaccination strategy.

For the time being, this booster dose, "it is not for the whole population: the High Authority for Health (HAS) has been clear and continues to say to vaccinate the target populations", indicated the Minister of Health. , François Braun, September 27.

On the other hand, he clarified, “if you wish to be vaccinated, you can do it”.

People at risk of developing a serious form of the disease are thus eligible, namely people aged 60 and over, those who are immunocompromised and those around them, residents of nursing homes, pregnant women, as well as children and adolescents. high risk.

Just like professionals in the health and medico-social sectors.

That is about 17 million people invited to be vaccinated without delay.

What vaccines are available and what are the differences between them?

For this recall campaign, the HAS recommends using “preferably one of the three bivalent vaccines” adapted to the subvariants of Omicron, recently approved by the European Medicines Agency.

Sera which are based on messenger RNA technology, and which “are not new vaccines but vaccines adapted to circulating strains”, underlined the HAS, drawing a parallel with anti-influenza vaccines.

These are the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech both targeting the original strain of the virus – the Wuhan strain – and the BA.1 variant of Omicron, as well as the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech targeting the original strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron, currently in circulation.

With these adapted vaccines, “we can hope for even greater protection and longer duration”, reacted this Monday Elisabeth Bouvet, the president of the Technical Commission for Vaccinations at HAS.

Where is the epidemic and why do the authorities insist on the importance of this recall campaign?

The circulation of the virus has intensified in France since the beginning of September, with around 40,000 cases detected each day.

And hospitalizations are also increasing, with nearly 700 new daily admissions.

“These are hospitalizations of unvaccinated, elderly and sick people, observes Dr Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist and Covid-19 crisis doctor at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches.

However, the burden of this disease is the serious forms: there are still today dozens of people who die every day from Covid-19.

Not only is Omicron not a "flu", but there is also the risk of an eighth wave concomitant with a wave of seasonal flu.

Because unlike last year, wearing a mask is no longer compulsory.

Problem, among eligible people, “less than 50% made their second reminder, deplores Professor Bouvet.

We have to fix that."

And quick !

“The waves of Covid in autumn-winter expose to a risk of increased circulation of the virus, therefore to the appearance of new mutations, warns Dr Davido.

With the risk of seeing, for example, the BA.2.75.2 sub-variant – even more resistant to immunity acquired by vaccination or previous contamination – or a completely new variant, take the lead and reduce the therapeutic arsenal of which we has.

It should not be forgotten: most of the anti-Covid treatments available are monoclonal antibodies.

However, if the vaccination coverage of eligible people is not high enough, if their immunity is not reinforced against Omicron,

immune escape from the virus can lead to immune escape from treatments.

There is a window of opportunity not to be missed: vaccination adapted to Omicron can reduce contamination, reinfections and the risk of mutation, explains the infectious disease specialist.

The challenge of this recall campaign is crucial”.

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