The Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) has recommended the injection of a single dose of vaccine for people who have already been infected with the coronavirus.
While France is the first country to formulate this opinion, president of the technical committee on vaccinations of the HAS justified this choice on the air in Europe 1.
The question of whether patients who have already contracted Covid-19 should follow the same vaccination protocol as others has been raised since the start of the campaign.
On Friday, the High Authority of Health (HAS) ruled by recommending only injecting a single dose to people infected in the past.
Invited from Europe 1, the infectious disease specialist at Bichat hospital and president of the technical committee on vaccinations of the HAS, Elisabeth Bouvet, maintained that an infection acted as a first dose of vaccine, justifying therefore to proceed only afterwards. 'with a single injection.
>> LIVE
- Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Friday February 12
Provisional immunity
"Many people have noticed that people who had already been infected, when they were vaccinated, raised their antibodies very very quickly, as if they had already had a first dose of vaccine", sums up the infectious disease specialist, citing in particular the work carried out by the French-speaking Society of Infectious Pathology.
The opinion issued by the HAS should in any case make it possible to review the order of priority patients for this vaccination campaign.
Elisabeth Bouvet also states that the latest studies suggest temporary immunity for infected people: "There is no reason to vaccinate them soon after infection since [they] are protected for at least three months, probably six. All of them are protected. the data converge, ”she says.
These patients should therefore wait 3 to 6 months before receiving a single dose of the vaccine.
The specialist adds that if there is any doubt as to whether or not they have contracted the virus, the protocol will remain unchanged and the patient will receive two doses.
>> Find Your big evening newspaper in replay and podcast here
"Do not overprotect"
This HAS opinion is criticized, suggesting that it is a somewhat clumsy maneuver to save precious vaccines.
"It is not at all in this spirit", sweeps Elisabeth Bouvet, invoking a rational decision: "We do not need two doses of vaccine since we have an immune memory of this virus."
It calls for "protecting people" but "not to overprotect them".
Affirming that this opinion has received the approval of many experts, the president of the technical committee on vaccinations has no doubt that it will be followed by the government.