• Many French people want to be vaccinated faster.

    According to our sixth YouGov Health Barometer for 

    20 Minutes

     and Doctissimo, 27% of respondents said they had already tried to be vaccinated when they were not eligible and 19% successfully.

  • The French even want to go even faster and stronger than the public authorities and the scientific community: more than one in two French people (55%) think that it should be opened up to people under 18 as of now.

    A proportion that even reaches 66% among those over 55.

  • The stake of the vaccination of the youngest is crucial to achieve collective immunity, say specialists.

More and more French people want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and quickly. While the Prime Minister announced on Thursday the opening of vaccination to all adults from May 31, two weeks earlier than expected, many French people did not wait for his green light to take the plunge. According to our sixth YouGov Health Barometer for 

20 Minutes

 and Doctissimo *, 27% of them say they have already tried to be vaccinated when they were not eligible (and 19% successfully) and 37% provided, ahead of Thursday's announcement that they were going to try to get immunized before the scheduled immunization expansion date. A proportion that even reaches 43% among 18-24 year olds, 44% among 45-54 year olds.

While 73% of respondents today say they are satisfied with the strategy of prioritizing the most vulnerable (+1.2 points compared to March 2021), 54% remain dissatisfied with the pace of the vaccination campaign (-1, 5 point). "This impatience is real, especially among young patients," confirms Matthieu Calafiore, general practitioner in Lille and associate lecturer of MG at the University of Lille 2. It is explained on the one hand by the wish not to fall ill. but also by the desire to be able to resume a social life. When there was talk of a health pass to enter certain countries or do certain activities, the young people wanted to be vaccinated so that they would not be denied access ”. According to our barometer,59% of French people are also in favor of the health pass (against 35% of unfavorable) and the proportion even reaches 61% among 18-24 year olds.

Extend vaccination to minors today

In terms of vaccination, the French even want to go even faster and stronger than the public authorities and the scientific community: more than one in two French people (55%) think that it should be opened to people under 18 years from now.

A proportion that even reaches 66% among those over 55.

This enlargement is not for tomorrow, however.

For Alain Fisher, professor of immunology appointed by Jean Castex to coordinate France's vaccine strategy against the Covid-19 pandemic, the first adolescents could be entitled to vaccines next month.

"16-18 people will be vaccinated fairly quickly […], this will be feasible in June," said the "Mister vaccine" of the government this Friday on BFMTV.

Asked about this last Monday on the set of the continuous news channel, the Minister of Health had wanted to be more careful: "It is not immediately, but it may be," said Olivier Véran.

"It's" not immediately "because we have to vaccinate adults and we still have a certain number of tens of millions of French people to vaccinate, he detailed.

And then it is "maybe" because health authorities believe that it could be necessary, at least down to the age of 12 ".

Ongoing clinical trials

The president of the strategic orientation council of vaccination, Alain Fischer, has estimated on several occasions that it would probably be necessary to vaccinate minors to achieve sufficient vaccination coverage to hope for group immunity. “The idea will be to vaccinate as much of the population as possible,” says Matthieu Calafiore. What we need now is to have scientific studies which show us the effectiveness and the absence of harmfulness of the vaccine in children. And above all enlighten us on the dosage: are we doing the same dosage as in adults, are we doing the same recall, at the same time? We must not do this with a wet finger and we must respect the data of science on this. "

Currently, only certain adolescents between 16 and 18 years old, close to immunocompromised people or who have serious high-risk pathologies can receive Pfizer's vaccine.

Clinical trials are underway to verify the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in children and adolescents.

Moderna benefits from an authorization from the age of 18 in the European Union, against 16 years for Pfizer and BioNTech, and the European regulator began on Monday to assess their request for extension to 12-15 years.

* The survey was carried out on 1,004 people representative of the French national population aged 18 and over.

The survey was conducted online, on the YouGov France proprietary panel from May 19 to 20, 2021.

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"A race against time" to avoid a fourth wave

While deconfinement has just entered its second stage with the reopening of stores, terraces and cultural places, the French are also showing their optimism about the next process: according to our latest YouGov health barometer for 

20 Minutes

 and Doctissimo, 6 French out of 10 believe that the deconfinement schedule planned by the government can be met (60%).

For the general practitioner Matthieu Calafiore, it is however to be feared, that with the approach of the regional and departmental polls of June 20 and 27, considerations more electoral than health explain the absence of new braking measures even in the event of a rebound. epidemic. "The health situation has nothing to do with that of a year ago when the circulation of the virus was really lower: with an incidence rate that has fallen below 200, we remain four times above the threshold alert! But I take the bet that no political party will take the decision to close everything while there is an election. And what must be feared then is rather a fourth wave at the end of summer or beginning of autumn, ”laments the doctor. “It's going to be a real race against time:if we manage to vaccinate fast enough and strong enough we will potentially be sheltered from a wave… except for a new variant ”

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