Paris (AFP)

A "hyper-fast" and "close to home" meeting: Juliette enjoys her first dose of Moderna, received in a Parisian pharmacy, where the RNA vaccines expected for months finally arrive, at the rate of only two vials per week.

Vaccinated on a fluke: "I went to pick up something at the pharmacy yesterday, I asked if they were doing any vaccines by chance. They put me on their waiting list and they called me in the evening. I had the appointment today, it's super fast, "says the 33-year-old mother, accompanied by her two children.

Blessed bread before the holidays "with the grandparents in Portugal", while she "did not manage to have a date in the next few days on Doctolib, or then in the suburbs, which did not (l) 'didn't help at all ".

Here, in front of the François-Mitterrand library, "it's really near my home, so more practical", she adds.

A story that closely resembles that of Gabriel, 23 years old.

Finding a niche on Doctolib, "it was quite complicated", but when we went to the pharmacy, we offered him "a possibility on a waiting list" and "it was done in a week".

"No need to wait, nor to try again", he smiles, "happy and reassured" to be able to travel soon and "to return to see the family on the other side of the Atlantic".

Beside him, his American wife Courtney, 25, is recovering from her emotions: she was "a little scared" at the idea of ​​receiving her first dose, but because she was "afraid of injections, not of the vaccine" .

Intended for all adults - without age limit - the Moderna therefore seems to meet its audience.

They are "generally active people, under 55 years old, who want to resume a normal life", observes the pharmacist Yorick Berger, who has already vaccinated "about forty people since last week" in his dispensary.

- "Strike force" -

A good start, given the quantities received: two bottles of 10 doses maximum per week and per pharmacy, only one for liberal doctors, within the limit of 300,000 weekly doses, allocated to first arrivals when reservations are open.

This selection does not guarantee timely delivery.

Caregivers in four southern regions experienced it last week, when a truck breakdown delayed the delivery of 145,000 doses by several days, luckily without breaking the cold chain.

# photo1

In Paris, Yorick Berger does not see "any delay compared to what was announced", but still regrets not having been able to use a messenger RNA vaccine earlier.

"We asked for them quickly, we are disappointed to have them so late, because we could have vaccinated more widely", with the "strike force" of the 22,000 French pharmacies, which demonstrated during the last anti-flu campaign that they "could increase immunization coverage".

To this must be added some 50,000 general practitioners, some of whom "are very angry", such as Dr Agnès Gianotti, who is still awaiting his bottle of Moderna ordered almost three weeks ago.

As for AstraZeneca, then for Janssen, the logistics are laborious, to believe that "the State does not know how to work with us", rants the vice-president of the union MG France, installed in the north of the capital.

Not resigned so far - "when I vaccinate someone, I feel useful" - she is worried to see the population eligible for the first two vaccines "shrinking like hell", because "nobody wants them anymore" .

# photo2

The Moderna will not be enough to break through the glass ceiling that is already emerging among the elderly, that the vaccination centers have not attracted.

To reach them, Dr Gianotti says, "we have to be given Pfizer".

© 2021 AFP