Europe 1 with AFP 6:38 p.m., March 18, 2022

While the fourth dose or second booster dose against the coronavirus has been open for the over 80s for a few days, the High Health Authority, in a press release, calls for its extension to the over 65s.

But for now, the government refuses for the moment to consider it. 

The fourth dose is debated in France.

This Friday in a press release, the La Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) spoke out in a press release for "a second booster dose for people over 65 who are most at risk of a severe form of the disease and who wish".

The idea of ​​a second booster dose, generally referred to as a “fourth dose”, has been mooted for several months, given the rise of the Omicron variant which is particularly contagious and partly resistant to existing vaccines.

#Communiqué |

Vaccination #COVID19


The HAS proposes to make it possible to administer a 2nd booster dose to people aged 65 and over who wish: either at very high risk of a severe form of the disease, or polypathological https://t. co/SAapptle4c


|

@sante_gouvpic.twitter.com/loFrgIuLDa

– High Authority for Health (@HAS_sante) March 18, 2022

Already open to over 80s

The scientific consensus is far from being established as regards the interest of an extension to the entire population, but several countries have chosen to give the possibility to those deemed most at risk.

It is the choice of France which announced, a few days ago, by the voice of Prime Minister Jean Castex, that the fourth dose would be offered to all people over 80 years of age.

But this announcement was made without waiting for the opinion of the High Health Authority, which had nevertheless been seized on the subject by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.

>> READ ALSO

- Covid-19: two years after the first confinement, should we be worried about the rebound of the epidemic?

The HAS does not pronounce clearly on the merits of such an openness to older people without discrimination, contenting itself with "takes (re) note of the government announcement".

But she believes that from the age of 65, only people "at very high risk of severe form" of Covid, or those with several chronic diseases, should have access to the fourth dose.

What is more, while the government is opening up the possibility of a fourth dose three months after the third, the HAS considers that this interval should be extended to six months "so as not to reduce the adherence of the population to vaccination by too frequent reminders".

HAS finally insists on the fact that it is not "relevant" to open the fourth dose to the entire population, after its European counterpart, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) took a similar position on Thursday.

Expand AstraZeneca's Evusheld preventive treatment

The French authority has also communicated other recommendations: it now considers it possible to vaccinate children who have been affected by a pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome (PIMS), the most frequent complication of Covid in the youngest.

Finally, it wishes to extend the use of a preventive treatment, Evusheld from AstraZeneca, to all immunocompromised patients in whom vaccination does not work well, including adolescents over 12 years of age.