INTERVIEW
Less than half of French people, according to the latest figures released by Public Health France, would like to be vaccinated against the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus. Sunday at the microphone of Europe 1, Marie-Paule Kiény, director of research at Inserm and president of the vaccine committee Covid-19, responsible for discussions with manufacturers and the collection of scientific evaluations on these vaccines, tried to reassure families worried to see, in January, their relatives living in nursing homes being vaccinated. For her, there is no question of talking about guinea pigs; it is above all a matter of avoiding “the extreme mortality that there was in nursing homes during the first and second waves.”
Avoid mortality, “protect the elderly”
Talking about guinea pigs, she says, “is really taking the proposition to vaccinate these very old people the wrong way.” If we propose to vaccinate them first, “it is quite simply because we know that they are the most vulnerable people. We want to try as much as possible to protect these very old people”.
Obviously, adds the president of the vaccine committee, “these are not the only vulnerable people who will need to be vaccinated. At present, what we know about these vaccines which are under development is that they did not give rise to significant adverse effects. So we believe we can safely vaccinate, as far as we know, people who are vulnerable due to their age. “
“It is worth using them”
She believes that while we do not know everything about these future vaccines, “we already know a lot”, including the fact that, she says, “these vaccines are extremely effective”. On the other hand, she admits, “what we don’t know is how long will they be?” “It is normal for any immune reaction, for any vaccination, that over time the effectiveness may become less important. This is the case for most vaccines”, explains Marie-Paule Kiény, who points out that various recommendations are given once this duration of effectiveness is known.
“We now have recommendations for yellow fever vaccination, which are a single vaccination for the whole life. On the other hand, the flu vaccine must be given every year. For Covid vaccines, even for very advanced ones, we don’t know what the duration of protection will be – so we have to be transparent about this. But what we have seen is that in the short term after vaccination, these vaccines are extremely effective and therefore it is worth the worth using them, ”concludes the research director.
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