Anti-Covid vaccine: booster dose from three months, open to teens at risk … HAS recommendations

The vaccination campaign is still accelerating. Since Wednesday, after a consensus of the health authorities, it is open to all children from 5 to 11 years old, while the recall campaign is in full swing for adults. This Friday, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends opening it to all adolescents aged 12 to 17 at risk of developing a serious form of Covid-19.

“Given the epidemic situation linked to the dissemination of the Omicron variant, data which confirms a drop in vaccine efficacy, the National Medicines Safety Agency has issued an opinion in which it considers that the administration of a booster dose in frail adolescents can be considered “, wrote the HAS in a press release. “On the basis of these different elements, the HAS now recommends the administration of a booster dose in adolescents from 12 to 17 years old suffering from immunodeficiency (pathological and induced by drugs) or from comorbidity to risk of severe form, on the same terms as adults. “

On the other hand, adolescents vaccinated for several months, but who do not present a risk of developing a serious form, are not (yet) concerned by this recall. “The HAS will decide later on the administration of this reminder to all adolescents from 12 to 17 years old”, she specifies. “Indeed, the clinical trial conducted by the Pfizer laboratory to assess the efficacy and safety of a booster dose in adolescents is underway.”

For adults, the High Health Authority recommends administering the booster dose as early as three months after the second dose (or the first in the event of a previous infection). “The HAS recommends that the administration of a booster dose can now be performed from three months after the primary vaccination in the population eligible for this booster.” A decision taken because of the epidemic context – France should very soon pass the bar of 100,000 daily cases – and the emergence of the Omicron variant, soon to be in the majority.

“The HAS considers that the current worrying epidemic context justifies an acceleration of the vaccination campaign by shortening the time between primary vaccination and booster dose and by increasing the level of protection of the population”, she writes. “The dual objective is again to limit as much as possible the number of new cases of infection and serious forms and to avoid the saturation of health establishments.”

However, this last recommendation does not yet appear to be followed by the government. In a tweet, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran confirmed the lowering of the deadline, but only to four months after the last dose. “As of today, reminders are now possible as early as four months after the last injection / infection”, writes the minister.

In addition, the High Health Authority once again calls on the non-vaccinated to take the plunge, but also the fragile public to achieve this third dose, already administered to more than 21.5 million French people.