For the time being, no data supports the hypothesis of an extension of this additional dose to the entire population.
The second booster dose begins to be deployed in France. This Tuesday, during a press briefing, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health provided some details on the campaign which is starting in nursing homes, long-term care units (USLD) as well as among health professionals. .
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This weekend, in an interview with Parisian Jean Castex announced the openingnow [de] the fourth dose to over 80s who have been on their booster dose for more than three months, who face a gradual loss of immunity“. This concerns people aged 80 and over, as well as residents of nursing homes or USLDs.
This new dose must be administered three months after the injection of the first booster, with one subtlety: people who have been infected “more than three months after the first booster“do not need to be vaccinated again, the rule”one infection = one injectionapplying. Conversely, those who have been infected “less than three months after the first boostershould receive this fourth injection, specifies a message from the DGS sent to all health professionals on Monday. This second reminder is simply “recommended“, not mandatory: it “does not fall within the scope of the health pass».
2.5 million people affected, according to the Ministry of Health
In total, this makes around 2.5 million eligible people, including 500,000 living in Ehpad or USLD, noted the ministry.
For residents of Ehpad and USLD, the dose will be offered directly in the establishment, as during the first reminder. Injections in town could start as early as Tuesday morning, it was said, adding that the device was “in place“: the elderly can make an appointment in one of the hundred vaccination centers still active in France, receive the injection at home or via a city health professional in his pharmacy or practice, explained a ministry representative.
The example of Israel
While experts remained cautious about whether a second recall would be appropriate, in recent weeks there have been opinions calling on the government to take this route. A way to better protect the most vulnerable in the face of an epidemic which has still not said its last word, and this, while the protection offered by vaccines against Covid-19 is weakening – admittedly less markedly after a reminder – over time.
In an addendum dated mid-February, the Vaccine Strategy Guidance Council (COSV) underlined, based on data from DREES, a “increase in hospital and critical care admissions for people over 80 who received their first booster shot“. A signal warning of a drop in vaccine protection, according to the COSV. In this context, Israel’s feedback on the fourth dose as well as the example of our European neighbors justify “injection of a second booster vaccine for people over 80 and people living in nursing homes“, concluded the notice.
«Older people have weaker and less resilient immune systems than younger people. Their immune memory capacity is not zero, but it weakens significantly“, justified the president of the COSV, Alain Fisher, this Tuesday. In Israel,there were no adverse effects observed, neither in the elderly nor in those slightly younger“. This extra dosereduces infection by a factor of two, and serious forms with hospitalizations by a factor of four“, he detailed. The second reminder can therefore be justified for very fragile people, in particular in a context “of the rebound in the incidence rate […] which gives greater relevance to the need to protect the most fragile and elderly people».
The executive remains open to the idea of an extension of the second reminder
For the time being, there is no data to consolidate the hypothesis of an extension of this second reminder beyond the most fragile and elderly populations, confirmed Alain Fisher. Still, the ministrydon’t close the doorto this track, in the event of the emergence of scientific studies on the subject:we will be completely listening, depending on the opinions given, we will see if there is a need to change things“, it was said.
The authorities are counting on this new vaccine reminder to push new fragile people who have not yet been vaccinated to take the step. And, more broadly, the ministry hopes that it will give a boost to a campaign which has continued to see its pace decrease since the beginning of the year: pediatric vaccination “unfortunately lagging behind“, Only 14,000 primary injections were recorded last week, and booster injections are dwindling. The combination of these factors made the previous seven days “the smallest week of the campaign» vaccine, since its inception, with only 167,000 injections. A number that should continue to decline, while four million French people remain unvaccinated.