Sevran (AFP)
The French vaccination campaign against Covid-19 was symbolically launched on Sunday in a hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis by injecting the vaccine into a 78-year-old woman and a 65-year-old cardiologist.
"It's getting hot!", Launched this former resident of Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis) after having received the injection of the vaccine, Comirnaty, with messenger RNA, developed by the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech.
Smiling, she was applauded by the hospital staff present, noted the AFP journalist.
It was then a 65-year-old cardiologist, Dr Jean-Jacques Monsuez, who was vaccinated shortly before 11:20 a.m.
About twenty elderly people and caregivers were to be vaccinated in total, in Sevran then at the geriatric center of Champmaillot, dependent on the Dijon CHU.
The government has set by the end of February the goal of one million vaccinated among the oldest and most vulnerable, individuals and caregivers, in 7,000 nursing homes and other similar establishments.
After the green light given on December 21 to the product of the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech by the European Union, almost all of its member states are simultaneously launching their vaccination campaign on Sunday, opened one day in advance by Germany , Hungary and Slovakia.
The vaccine, sent on Saturday in France under good escort, was particularly expected in France, where the epidemic has killed more than 62,500 people and where the virus is actively circulating.
The presence of its British variant, possibly more contagious, was confirmed on Friday in one patient.
"We cannot afford to let the epidemic flare up again," the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, warned in the Sunday Journal.
Asked about the possibility of a third confinement, he said he was ready to take "the necessary measures, if the situation were to worsen".
"Protect the most fragile"
"This vaccine protects 95% of individuals against cases of severe form and will save many lives," said the minister, satisfied to be able "to start protecting the most fragile among us".
The ramp-up of the vaccination campaign will be gradual: next week it will concern 23 establishments in the regions of Paris, Lyon, Lille and Tours, before intensifying to reach around a hundred places in the first two weeks of January.
The government has set by the end of February the goal of one million vaccinated among the oldest and most vulnerable, individuals and caregivers, in 7,000 nursing homes and other similar establishments.
"All retirees over 65" will follow until the spring, then the rest of the population aged 16 and over, again on a voluntary basis.
The government hopes to have vaccinated "15 million people by this summer," said Matignon on Saturday, a deadline slightly delayed compared to what had been envisaged.
In the country of Pasteur, skepticism about vaccines remains high: a majority of French people (56%) did not plan to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a BVA poll published on Sunday by the JDD and carried out from 11 to 14 December.
- Variant with several unknowns -
Will the vaccination only be effective in the face of new strains of the coronavirus?
Everything suggests "that (existing) vaccines are effective on these mutants", reassured the Directorate General of Health (DGS) on Saturday.
The question arises all the more acutely since the French authorities had confirmation, on Christmas Eve, of what they had feared for several days: the presence of the British variant of the virus on their territory, in Tours.
The case concerns a Frenchman usually residing in the United Kingdom, who arrived from London on December 19, according to the Department of Health.
Similar contaminations have been reported in Germany, Lebanon, Denmark, but also in Italy, Sweden, Spain, Japan and Canada.
According to several studies presented in the UK, the new variant is more contagious than the original strain.
One of them estimates that this contagiousness is higher by "50% to 74%" and that this could have consequences on the number of deaths and hospitalizations linked to Covid-19.
But nothing shows at this stage that this variant leads to more serious forms.
© 2020 AFP