The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, also mentioned on Wednesday a reduction in the vaccination pass on this date, if the circulation of the virus is “very weak”. For Delfraissy, “we are at the beginning of a new era”.
“Two years later, we are coming out of the + crisis + stage to enter a chronic phase. We are going to move slowly, probably in the fall, towards an endemic situation, with controlled circulation of the virus, but with occasional epidemic peaks due to the appearance of new variants. Clearly, we will live for a long time with Sars-CoV-2, but in a different way, ”he continues.
A new model in the fall
According to him, “with a high level of vaccination and reminders, living with Covid is […] have an almost normal life, let the virus circulate provided that the level of contamination is not too high. And resume temporary restriction measures during an epidemic recovery ”. “This is the model that is beginning to be built,” he sums up.
“Living with the virus may also mean getting out of this notion of obligation, which has been necessary until now. And finally get citizens to manage their lives themselves according to the level of the epidemic. You can’t ask the same thing of an 18-year-old or someone who is old. It will be up to citizens to choose (to remove the mask, for example, editor’s note), to assess the risk ”.
However, the President of the Scientific Council warns: “it is not because the disease is endemic that it is not serious! It will take a long time for Sars-CoV-2 to become as mild as other coronaviruses. There will be times of high viral circulation, ”he recalls. He judges that a fourth dose will be relevant, but “for the most fragile vaccinated for six months”, evoking “probably a new vaccination campaign in October”. “We will not go to a fourth generalized dose”, he assures.
Finally, when asked about the antiviral Paxlovid, a curative treatment against Covid-19, he indicates that “for the moment, 1,200 patients have been treated” which is “insufficient”.