Is this the chronicle of an announced death?
The AstraZeneca vaccine can no longer be found in France.
Last weekend in Nice, a vaccination center was forced to close its doors earlier than expected.
Of the 4,000 doses available that day, only 58 people volunteered to receive an injection of the Anglo-Swedish serum.
From Paris to Amiens, via Beauvais or Tours, centers offering doses of AstraZeneca for people over 55 years of age are recording resounding flops.
If the authorities cite organizational problems to explain these failures, they also recognize a widely shared distrust among the population vis-à-vis a vaccine suspected of causing rare cases of thrombosis.
In March, France and other countries suspended its use a few days before resuming injections in the wake of the green light from the European Medicines Agency.
First recommended for young people before being reserved for over 55s, AstraZeneca suffers from a catastrophic image in France.
According to an Odoxa poll released on April 8, 71% of people do not want to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
Asked by the newspaper Le Monde, a close friend of President Macron sums up the state of mind of the French.
"The result is that everyone wants to have Pfizer, including audiences who are eligible now for 'Astra', but who prefer to wait for the so-called 'good' vaccine!"
Emmanuel Macron himself acknowledged Tuesday, April 20 during a meeting at the Élysée Palace "of the difficulties to convince on the AstraZeneca".
>> To see on France 24: THE INTERVIEW - Prof. Alain Fischer: "AstraZeneca is a safe and effective vaccine for those over 55"
Restore confidence
At the top of the state, the disenchantment of the French vis-à-vis the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford is taken very seriously. The government is currently considering a communication campaign carried by celebrities or known faces of the small screen to restore confidence in this vaccine. Matignon would have suggested in particular the name of the singer Sheila to try to convince the more than 55 years.
"This can be interesting, but it can also have a boomerang effect, warns the doctor Jean-Louis Koeck joined by France 24." In general, it is necessary to have a rather sober communication, which must go through the best relays than are the field health professionals ", adds this professor at the origin of a digital platform for information and expertise on vaccines.
In the meantime, the executive continues to affirm its attachment to AstraZeneca by relaying the words of scientists: the benefits of AstraZeneca far outweigh the risks.
A message that Jean Castex should again hammer home during his press conference on the deconfinement schedule scheduled for 6 p.m.
For the government, the stakes are high because AstraZeneca, despite its setbacks, remains one of the pillars of the French vaccine strategy.
The next key step in this strategy: April 24, with the opening of vaccination, to around 400,000 workers over 55 who are considered a priority, such as cashiers, taxi drivers or even maintenance workers.
For the moment, the authorities refuse to go back on the objectives set, inseparable from an easing of health restrictions.
It is still a question of having vaccinated 20 million people in mid-May and 30 million during the month of June.
According to data from Public Health France, more than 13 million French people had received at least one dose on Wednesday evening.
A useful tool immediately
However, the future of AstraZeneca seems compromised in France and in the European Union which would prepare against the laboratory a legal action to sanction in particular its delays in deliveries.
From now on, Brussels would bet on Pfizer.
According to the newspaper Les Échos, the Commission is in the process of negotiating 900 million doses of the vaccine developed by the American pharmaceutical giant and its German partner BioNTech for 2022, and as many for 2023.
At the same time, the EU said on Wednesday that it would not exercise its options for the delivery of 300 million additional doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines against Covid-19, without specifying whether other contracts would be signed in the future with these two groups.
"The decision is not clear cut", but the most likely is that the EU will not make new orders explained on April 16 on RMC the Minister of Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Two days earlier, Denmark had announced the outright abandonment of the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for health security reasons, a first in Europe.
"Each situation is different. In Denmark, you have very little circulation of the virus. So it may be a reasonable decision to abandon AstraZeneca, but it would not be with us where the virus circulates much more", tempers Jean-Louis Koeck.
"In our situation, it is clear that it is better to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca from a certain age than not to be vaccinated."
If the long-term objective is therefore to do without AstraZeneca, it is difficult to do without it immediately and this despite the imminent arrival of the Johnson and Johnson serum. Rare side effects, similar to those seen in patients who received a dose of AstraZeneca have been reported in the United States. This newcomer could therefore arouse the same fears in France as his Anglo-Swedish counterpart.
One question remains: what to do with the doses that have not found a taker?
Some professionals are worried that their expiration date is fast approaching and fear having to throw them in the trash.
To remedy this, pharmacists and doctors are calling for a new distribution of the doses of AstraZeneca, which they believe are too numerous in vaccination centers, but insufficient in offices or pharmacies.
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