Influenza: faced with a vaccination campaign at half mast, France must “redouble its efforts”, worries the OECD

by time news

The reminders are piling up. After pharmacists, health authorities and the government, it is now the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that is concerned about the fall in the rate of influenza vaccination. Vaccination against influenza must “redouble efforts” in France after a “much slower start” than in previous years, which raises “fears of a return to the level of coverage” pre-Covid, the OECD said on Monday.

The official campaign, launched on October 18, is suffering from a “much slower start than in the past two years. This raises fears of a return to a level of coverage before the pandemic”, i.e. “around 50% only” among the population aged 65 and over, indicates the institution on the sidelines of its annual “panorama” of the systems. European health.

This report underlines that the eruption of Covid had boosted the vaccination rate of seniors on the old continent, from 37% in 2019 to 44% in 2020, while France had recorded a jump of 8 points and reached the threshold of 60% .

France far behind the United Kingdom, Ireland or Denmark

A level “more or less maintained” in 2021, but still far from the 75% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which other countries are however close to, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Denmark .

But the latest figures confirm the relapse: with five million vaccines reimbursed by Health Insurance on November 20, France is 13% behind last year. The health data specialist IQVIA for its part lists 9.3 million doses distributed by pharmacies, or 8% less than at the same stage of the campaign in 2021.

“It will therefore be necessary to redouble efforts during the current national campaign in order to maintain, and even increase, the higher levels reached during the first year of the pandemic”, estimates the OECD.

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