The launch of the vaccination campaign began on Sunday, December 27. A glimmer of hope while the epidemic remains virulent and that a third confinement could occur, according to the Minister of Solidarity and Health. Olivier Véran specified yesterday, in the columns of the JDD, that the circulation of the virus remained important with “15,000 contaminations detected per day on average, while we had fallen to 11,000”.
In addition, family gatherings for the holidays make the authorities fear a resurgence of the epidemic in January. To counter the spread of the epidemic, the vaccination campaign carried out in the countries of the European Union therefore represents an important lever.
The first vaccinations took place in Seine-Saint-Denis and Côte d’Or, in establishments welcoming the elderly. Authorized on December 24 by the High Authority for Health (HAS), the vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Pfizer and BioNTech will primarily be administered to the most vulnerable and exposed populations.
How will the vaccination campaign be carried out?
The vaccination campaign must take place in five phases until the end of spring 2021. Unlike France, Italy has chosen to prioritize doctors and caregivers before residents of structures for the elderly. In France, it will be first of all people residing in nursing homes and retirement homes who will benefit from the vaccine, the staff of these establishments will be able to be vaccinated if they present risk factors: be over 65 years old or have risks of comorbidities.
Until spring, vaccines will gradually extend to people depending on their age but also their exposure to the virus. Thus, between March and February the campaign will target people aged over 75 living at home, then people aged 65 to 74. Professionals in the health and medico-social sectors aged 50 and over and those with co-morbidities. It is finally between April and June that the vaccination campaign will be aimed at the general public.
But, already, personalities are wondering about the vaccination capacities. On Twitter, the environmental senator from Paris, Esther Benbassa, is surprised that only twenty people were vaccinated yesterday. “At this rate we will spend winter and spring in the company of the Covid-19 […] We expect the 200 million pre-purchase vaccines mentioned by the government. Hopefully we will not replay the sketch of the masks ”, hopes the senator.
On December 16, the Prime Minister indeed announced the pre-order by France of 200 million vaccines for 100 million people, “1.160 million vaccines will be on the territory by the end of the year, then 677,000 additional doses around January 5 or 6 and 1.6 million in February, ”explained Jean Castex.
Will the vaccine be compulsory?
No. The free choice of patients is presented as one of the three main principles of the vaccination strategy. Last week a law project making the travel restriction possible for unvaccinated people was also withdrawn after an outcry from the opposition. This text establishing a long-term health emergency management regime should not come back to the office of parliamentarians until after the crisis.
The establishment of a health passport linked to the vaccine, however, remains promoted by certain politicians such as François Bayrou, president of the MoDem and High Commissioner for Planning. The latter declared himself in favor, this Sunday on LCI, to the idea of a health passport, which would condition the access of certain places to the vaccination against Covid-19.
What about the effectiveness and the risks?
The arrival of this vaccine has raised a number of concerns and questions, particularly as to the speed at which it was produced. The various surveys carried out in recent weeks even show a strong reluctance in French society to be vaccinated.
It is true that the vaccines took an average of ten years to be produced but a combination of factors considerably accelerated the establishment of the one against Covid-19. Scientific progress on the one hand, but also the mobilization at the global level of researchers, citizens, politicians and industrialists.
Regarding adverse effects, they remain mild according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the High Authority for Health (HAS), both of which have authorized its placing on the market. In the United States, where nearly 2 million people have already been vaccinated, marginal cases of allergy to the vaccine have been reported.
This point still requires research. In The world, the vice-president of the Technical Committee on Vaccinations at the HAS believes that “orthodoxy wants us to rule out people with a known allergy to one of the components of the vaccine. Should we go further and not vaccinate all serious allergics? We will have to discuss it ”.
In France, a week-to-week follow-up will be set up with the weekly publication of a report on reported adverse reactions.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine offers almost complete protection ten days after the first injection. However, the duration of the immunity provided by the vaccine is unknown at this stage.
Is the vaccine suitable for the new variant of the coronavirus?
The SARS-CoV-2 variant observed for the first time in the United Kingdom was also detected in France on December 25. This new variant of the virus is “50% to 74%” more contagious than the strains in circulation, according to a first study.
“For the moment, there is no evidence suggesting that this vaccine is not effective against the new variant”, assured this Monday Emer Cooke, the director general of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
For the virologist Anne Godard, interviewed on France inter, “the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use messenger RNA, have the effect of making our body manufacture all of the Spike protein, so we will manufacture antibodies that target all the protein. This means that even if there is a mutation at one place in the protein (as in the British variant), overall, the vaccine remains effective ”.
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