Pharmacists fear flu vaccine shortage

In less than two weeks, half of the influenza vaccine stocks have already been used up.

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• In two weeks, about half of the stocks of flu shots have already been used up.

• Faced with unprecedented demand, fueled by the fear of simultaneous circulation of the seasonal flu and the coronavirus, pharmacists fear they will not be able to cope.

• While people at risk are a priority until the end of November, it is not certain that there are sufficient stocks left at that time to meet the demand of the general population.

Barely two weeks after the launch of the annual seasonal flu vaccination campaign, stocks have already depleted and the specter of a shortage is increasingly threatening.

In many pharmacies, the fridges are already empty, and the Union Syndicale des Pharmaciens de Pharmacy (USPO), the second trade union in the profession, warns of stock shortages due to "a lack of responsiveness of laboratories" .

Same observation on the side of the Federation of dispensing pharmacists (FSPF), which has received many reports of members already out of stock.

So, will there be vaccines for everyone?

If for the time being, only people at risk are given priority in obtaining the influenza vaccine, the demand in the general population is exponential.

Due to the lack of an anti-covid vaccine still available, many people who have never been vaccinated against the flu before and who wish to be vaccinated today. 

"People do not understand that we do not have a vaccine for everyone"

In pharmacies, we already know that it will be very complicated to meet demand.

“We sold our four-month stock in two hours,” says Monette Egarnes, a pharmacy assistant at 164, in the 12th arrondissement of the capital, still amazed.

We follow the guidelines and only issue the vaccine to people with a Health Insurance voucher, who have priority.

We received a second endowment, but with all the people at risk who came to see us, the stock has already left ”.

About ten days after the launch of the annual flu vaccination campaign, "we have already delivered 7 million doses, out of the 7.5 million doses initially delivered,"

 Gilles Bonnefond, president of the USPO

, told

.

This means that after ten days, the stocks available throughout France were only 500,000 doses, that's nothing!

Last year, we delivered 11 million doses over the duration of the vaccination campaign [from mid-October to the end of January].

This year, we have mobilized to respond quickly to the very strong demand while vaccinating more than two million French people in pharmacies.

But we need stocks to keep up!

".

At the launch of the campaign, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran said: people at risk are priority to receive the vaccine.

A directive communicated to all health professionals in a ministerial letter of October 13.

But if it is already complicated to provide a vaccine to all people at risk, meeting the demand of the rest of the population promises to be almost impossible.

“We do not have enough vaccines for everyone, insists Monette Egarnes.

Families with children come to see us because they want to be vaccinated, but today that is not possible.

A woman caring for her father with cancer came the other day to buy a vaccine for her, on the advice of the family doctor, and I couldn't get one!

The government launched its vaccination campaign by reminding us of the importance of the protection that this brings, so today people do not understand that we do not have a vaccine for everyone ”.

Delayed or even blocked deliveries

Yet this year, the government had planned more, providing for 15 million doses of vaccine, against 13 million last year.

And for its part, Sanofi, which produces the influenza vaccine, increased its production by 20% compared to last year, to cope with the foreseeable increase in demand.

But the USPO today denounces delays in deliveries, blocked because "the industry has not aligned with patient requests."

After having carried out a survey of its members, the USPO thus estimates between 70 and 90% the number of pharmacies which no longer have any stock, just ten days after the opening of the vaccination campaign.

A figure very far from reality according to the Ministry of Health, which ensures that, "in the most affected regions, we would arrive at 18 to 20% of pharmacies out of stock", according to the figures of the order.

In the field, "we have feedback from other pharmacies who simply have not received their order, without any explanation," says Monette Egarnes.

We see the same situation as with the shortage of masks at the start of the first wave.

According to ministry guidelines, we will only be able to deliver vaccines to non-priority people from the end of November, but today we do not know when we will be delivered again, or even if we will be!

There was necessarily a lack of anticipation… ”

"We see today that the first-time vaccines, who were not vaccinated in previous years, mobilized this year very early to receive their vaccine, observes Gilles Bonefond.

But the risk of shortage is there today: this year we expected two million more doses from laboratories.

Where are they ?

We do not understand this strategy of the dropper, of sequencing of deliveries, regrets Gilles Bonnefond.

Why do laboratories keep vaccines in their fridges rather than supply them to pharmacists?

We need it today, because of the significant demand from the French - which is legitimate - to protect themselves from the seasonal flu, since the simultaneous circulation with the Covid-19 is scary, and the flu vaccine makes it possible to protect yourself from one of these two viruses.

The state is scrambling to obtain these two million additional doses to make them available to pharmacies, but it will certainly not be before the end of November or the beginning of December ”.

For the FSPF, "the Ministry of Health [must] assume its responsibilities and inform the off-target population and prescribing health professionals that there will be no influenza vaccination this year except for vulnerable people".

"We risk arriving too late"

On the side of the Ministry of Health, we want to be more reassuring, recalling that 1.2 million doses must be delivered soon.

"In previous years, pharmacies did not get their orders in full from the first day of the vaccination campaign, you always had a long-term supply", says one avenue de Ségur.

Not enough to reassure pharmacists.

"If new restrictive measures are announced, such as re-containment, there is a risk of arriving too late and of not having managed to vaccinate all those at risk on time," feared Gilles Bonnefond.

But the Ministry of Health also recalls that the flu epidemic is not yet there: "It should arrive in December-January, or even later," he says.

So, is there a risk that priority people will not be able to get their vaccine?

“We don't know,” says Gilles Bonnefond.

And if the State is trying today to build up an additional stock of two million doses of vaccine, it will not be possible to place a larger order from the laboratories for this year, because the production of the influenza vaccine responds to a very precise timetable.

It starts every year in February, once the World Health Organization (WHO) sends laboratories its recommendation for the selection of strains to be put in the vaccine, according to information provided by Sanofi.

However, Gilles Bonnefond does not want to see everything in black either.

"The figures also mean that fragile French people have been vaccinated in large numbers, as have the staff of pharmacies, nursing homes and hospitals, who have been vaccinated more heavily than in previous years."

While the seasonal flu vaccine campaign started two weeks ago, Gilles Bonnefond said “the organization of a meeting with the Ministry of Health, laboratories and pharmacists in the coming days, to anticipate the organization of the next vaccination campaign ”.

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