Anti-Covid vaccine: should we push back the time of the second injection? : Current Woman The MAG

While France crossed the milestone of one million vaccinated this weekend, the question of compliance with the 21-day deadline recommended for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 28 days for that of Moderna arises. Indeed, postponing the second injection to 42 days (six weeks after the first) would make it possible to vaccinate more priority people: 700,000 in February according to estimates from the Institut Pasteur. In an opinion communicated on January 23, the High Authority for Health (HAS) is in favor of this device while we fear an epidemic rebound due to the arrival of new variants and where the supply of vaccines does not is not enough. Faced with the urgency of accelerating vaccination, the question is debated in the scientific community.

In line with the opinions of the World Health Organization, the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) and Public Health France, the HAS states in its opinion "that it seems reasonable to extend for all the time for administration of the second dose of the messenger RNA vaccines to six weeks, the first dose already offering protection against the virus".

Indeed, the risk of a loss of effectiveness of the vaccine seems limited, according to the HAS. The first dose is effective "within 12 to 14 days depending on the vaccine, when the second dose is administered, the effectiveness is almost 90%", Explain Daniel Floret, vice-president of the technical committee on vaccinations at HAS, to our colleagues from France Info. The administration of the second dose, if obviously essential, could be postponed. This period would automatically allow more French people at risk (over 75 years old, nursing home residents, caregivers and people suffering from serious illnesses) to be protected quickly.

An opinion that is not shared by the entire scientific community. The infectious disease specialist and head of the infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital Karine Lacombe, guest of the Grand Jury RTL, Le Figaro, LCI, is not for this dose spacing. "After a single dose, we did not reach a sufficient level of protection not to be infected, she explains. And if we space out the doses too much, we may never reach the dose to have the antibodies.

The decision of the health authorities will undoubtedly also be based on the supply of the various laboratories in the coming weeks. And concern is growing about it. Even before having obtained its approval by the European Medicines Agency (scheduled for January 29), AstraZeneca – which will supply a third vaccine to European countries – is already announcing delivery delays …

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