Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, announced on Friday March 11 that he had seized the High Authority for Health (HAS) on the interest of a fourth dose of vaccine against Covid-19. The body responsible for the health strategy was to meet next week to adopt a position. But the government did not wait. Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Saturday March 12 in an interview with Parisianthe opening of this second reminder for people over 80 years old.
This category of the population represents 4.1 million French people. Among them, 3.1 million have already received three injections. From this Monday, all those whose recall dates back more than three months will therefore be able to make a new appointment. The Prime Minister adds that this measure will also be recommended to “immunocompromised who were not eligible until now”. The few tens of thousands of people whose immune system was the most degraded already had access to a fourth or even a fifth dose. Several hundred thousand additional people will therefore be able to join them.
This unexpected announcement in its tempo is no coincidence. If the HAS had not yet expressed itself on the subject, the government had two other opinions from expert bodies. On February 18, the Council of Orientation for the Vaccine Strategy (COSV), set up on the occasion of this pandemic, had submitted an addendum to its previous opinion, issued a month earlier. While in January, he reserved the administration of a fourth dose to the severely immunocompromised, he changed his position and “recommended the injection of a second booster vaccine for people aged over 80 as well as [pour] people residing in nursing homes ».
“Little or no immune memory”
The COSV based its about-face on four observations. He first noted an increase in hospital admissions in critical care for over 80s who received their first reminder, unlike other age groups. « This suggests that the protection against severe forms conferred in the elderly by a booster would decrease over time., he indicated. A decrease which could be explained both by “less diversity of antibodies” generated by the vaccine and by a “T-response”the second line of immune defense, “less effective in the context of senescent immune memory”.
This explanation was nourished by a second series of data. Coming from Public Health France, they “suggest that people over the age of 80 would have little or no immune memory following a Covid-19 vaccination, as opposed to the lower classes”notes the COSV. “These people are therefore dependent on a practice of frequent boosters in order to maintain good immunity”he continues.
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