In early August, on Instagram, Emmanuel Macron confirmed that some fragile French people should receive a booster of the vaccine against Covid-19.
If the High Authority for Health must issue an opinion in the coming weeks, the DGS told 20 Minutes who are the French targeted by this vaccination campaign.
Will the entire population have to make a reminder and when?
For the moment, it is not the choice of France.
He had announced it in his televised address on July 12, Emmanuel Macron confirmed it in a video on Instagram on August 5.
From the start of the school year, some of the French will again have to be injected with a dose of vaccine against Covid-19.
"We are preparing, like other European countries, to do this third dose for people who are the oldest and most fragile", assured the Head of State.
But for whom and how?
20 Minutes covers
what we know for the moment.
Why a third dose?
The authorities prefer to speak of a “recall”. Because for some French people, it will indeed be a third dose. But people who have only received one dose because they have been infected with the coronavirus will have a second injection. As for immunocompromised people, they have already been recommended since May 5 to benefit from a third dose, we will then speak of a fourth dose. Today there are 100,000 immunocompromised people who have already received a 3rd dose of the vaccine.
But let's go back to the reasons for such a rapid recall. Studies show a drop in antibody levels six months after the second injection faster in older people. A recent study, carried out in Nancy by Professor Athanase Bénétos, on 700 nursing home residents and employees, confirms the interest of a recall. This professor of geriatrics explains to France Bleu: “for the elderly who have had the Covid, two doses are needed. For those who have not had the Covid, as the response is positive but it decreases over time, a third dose seems necessary to us. "
Contacted, the Directorate General of Health, seems more cautious. “At this stage, we do not have fully stabilized scientific advice concerning the need or not to offer a booster dose to the entire population, nor even concerning the different categories of the population that could be subject to a recall campaign. However, in France, we have a consensus that is forming with the converging opinions of the HAS, the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council (chaired by Alain Fischer) and the Scientific Council around the idea that a recall campaign will very soon be necessary for a certain number of populations for which we have already identified a phenomenon of weakening of the immunity conferred by the vaccine as early as nine months after the first injection. " Gold,people over 80 began to be vaccinated in January, nine months ago in September.
Who should have a reminder?
Still according to the DGS, the populations targeted at this stage, and subject to a favorable opinion from the European Medicines Agency, are residents of nursing homes and USLDs (long-term care units), people over the age of 80 years at home, people suffering from pathologies at very high risk of severe forms and immunocompromised people.
The Haute Autorité de Santé is due to issue an opinion in the coming weeks to specify the conditions of this recall campaign.
The HAS confirmed to us that it was awaiting further studies before making a decision.
From when ?
The DGS specifies that this new campaign will be modeled on the first. “For nursing homes and USLDs, the vaccine will be brought to establishments so that residents can be vaccinated on site, by the medical teams who monitor them daily. Also, the order of vaccines will be done via pharmacies from the end of August, for the first possible injections in mid-September. The routing of the doses to nursing homes and USLDs will be done via the common law circuit of wholesalers-distributors with the Pfizer vaccine. "
As for the elderly at home or suffering from serious pathologies, they will be able to make an appointment in vaccination centers or with their doctor from the beginning of September, for the first injections in mid-September.
Important note: it will not be a problem for a person vaccinated with Pfizer to receive Moderna and vice versa.
And for their health pass?
»A person eligible for a booster dose will retain a valid pass marked 2/2.
If the person takes a third dose, they will have a new pass on which it will be noted 3/3, but the old one will remain valid, ”explains the DGS.
How are other countries doing?
France is not the only country to take this path. Israel, a pioneer in immunization and the first to vaccinate its residents, launched a recall campaign for all over 60s in July. And on August 12, she lowered the age limit to 50.
For its part, the United States are more restrictive. On August 13, they authorized the injection of a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 for certain people with weakened immune systems. The US Medicines Agency (FDA) "is fully aware of the fact that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk of contracting serious illness," said Janet Woodcock, its acting commissioner. The third dose can be given at least 28 days after the second, to people who have received an organ transplant or those with "a similar level of immunosuppression," the agency said in a statement.
In contrast, healthy people "do not need an additional dose of anti-Covid vaccine to date," she said.
Because the laboratories are lobbying so that the entire population receives this reminder… A next step for France?
This is what the World Health Organization fears, which calls instead for a moratorium on booster doses of anti-Covid vaccines in order to be able to make these sera available to countries which have only been able to immunize one tiny part of their population.
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Covid 19
Emmanuel Macron
Anti-covid vaccine
Vaccination
Coronavirus
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