Health Minister François Braun called on Tuesday to “accelerate” vaccination against Covid-19 and the flu, in particular of the elderly and frail, the latest campaigns having so far “not achieved” their objectives. “You are fragile, you are over sixty, you have to get vaccinated against the flu, you have to get vaccinated against the Covid”, declared the Minister of Health visiting the Ehpad Albert du Bosquiel, in Bondues (North), on the day of the opening of the flu vaccination to all, after a phase reserved for priority audiences.
“We can be vaccinated with both at the same time. It is to protect ourselves, and for caregivers, it is to protect the most fragile”, insisted the minister, stressing that “the Covid-19 risk is far from being discarded”. A “slowdown” in the epidemic has been observed “for about three weeks with 260 cases per 100,000 inhabitants” but, “however, there are still deaths, there were a hundred deaths yesterday in France”, he said. he lamented.
“We are below targets”
“We can no longer accept that people die of Covid because we were negligent or because they did not get vaccinated,” he said. “Clearly we are below the objectives today”: “only about 10-15% of target people are vaccinated” against Covid-19, he regretted.
Regarding the flu, the numbers are also “lower than we expect”, he said. “WHO recommendations are 75% of the target population” vaccinated, but in France “for several years we have been below”, yet “we also die of the flu, every year”. The “double vaccination” against the two diseases “allows us to have a better rate. This year we have 190,000 people who have had both at the same time”, observed Mr. Braun.