The first doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 have arrived in France. The vaccine was developed by Pfizer-BioNTech. The doses will be administered this Sunday in a unit of the René-Muret hospital in Sevran and in a hospital in Burgundy.
–
The first 19,500 doses were sent this Saturday morning to the central pharmacy of the Hospitals of Paris. Preserved in dry ice, they must be reconditioned to then be delivered to the first two establishments in France: the René-Muret hospital in Sevran and the Champmaillot geriatric center at the Dijon CHU.
Vaccination will begin Sunday in France in these two establishments for the elderly. But the campaign for the 7,000 nursing homes in France, their residents and their caregivers likely to develop severe forms of Covid will not really start on a large scale until the beginning of 2021.
“I want to insist on the demand for territorial equality and fiscal justice, to effectively support the decisive role of our communities. As a reminder, our department has been particularly affected by the health crisis, with its economic and social consequences”, said the mayor of Sevran, Stéphane Blanchet, in a press release.
Two doses three weeks apart
The arrival in the EU of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was validated on Monday by the European Medicines Agency. In France, The High Authority of Health (HAS) issued its authorization Thursday.
This vaccine, which uses innovative messenger RNA technology, must be stored at -80 degrees (which poses significant logistical questions). According to a report from the United States Medicines Agency (FDA), it is very effective and has a rate of 95%, administered in two doses three weeks apart.
The launch of the vaccination campaign is thus eagerly awaited, while a first case of contamination by the Covid-19 variant which appeared in the United Kingdom was detected in France on Friday, in Tours, in a Frenchman usually residing in Great Britain. .
“Reduce mortality”
But many questions remain to be determined: the most important is that of long-term efficacy, since so far it has been calculated only one to two weeks after the last injection.
Another crucial question: it is not known whether the action of these vaccines is the same in the populations most at risk, starting with the elderly, who are more likely to develop a severe form.
Finally It also remains to be seen whether these vaccines block the transmission of the virus, in addition to reducing the severity of the disease in those who have received them.
Thus, the vaccination campaign which will begin this Sunday essentially aims to “reduce mortality and severe forms” disease and “to preserve the health system in France”, recalled Dominique Le Guludec president of the HAS.
–
