A month before France, the United States gives the green light this Thursday for the injection of a third dose of vaccine against the coronavirus.

This vaccination campaign will target people with a weakened immune system, for example due to an organ transplant or a disease, such as AIDS or cancer.

"The country has entered a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the FDA is fully aware that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk of contracting serious illness," said Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the United States Medicines Agency (FDA).

Indeed, if "other people who have the complete vaccination schedule are duly protected and do not need an additional dose of anti-Covid vaccine to date", specifies Janet Woodcock, this is not the case for immunocompromised people.

In them, the immune response triggered by the injection of the vaccine is weaker, which affects its effectiveness.

WHO moratorium on booster doses rejected

Less than 3% of American adults are immunocompromised, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country's leading federal public health agency. This immune weakness can come from the health problems of these patients, but also from the drugs they take to solve them. This is the case, for example, in transplant recipients, who follow treatments intended to lower the immune system to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for a moratorium on booster doses to fight inequality between rich countries, where vaccines abound, and poor countries, which have failed to immunize. only a small part of their population.

The United States rejected the call, believing that it did not "need" to choose between administering a third dose to its citizens or donating it to poor countries.

Fraud to get a third dose

According to an internal CDC document revealed by ABC, about a million people have already arranged for a third injection without being authorized. Asked about the question Thursday, the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, confirmed that the phenomenon was studied by her agency, and asked the population to "follow the recommendations". "We don't currently believe that, other than immunocompromised people, there is a need for booster doses," White House pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci said on CBS Thursday morning. that Israel plans to give a third dose to those over 50.

He said, however, that the level of protection in healthy people was observed "very closely".

"And if it turns out that they need (a third dose) at some point, we'll be ready to give them," he said.

“Inevitably there will be a time when we have to do recalls,” he added.

The discourse has therefore changed since the beginning of July.

In reaction to an announcement from Pfizer, which had said it planned to seek authorization soon for a third dose of its vaccine, the FDA and the CDC then quickly issued a statement assuring that vaccinated Americans "did not need to" a reminder at the present time ”.

Vaccines are free and widely available in the United States, but only half of the population is fully vaccinated.

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