Covid-19: without messenger RNA, can the Novavax vaccine convince the reluctant?

A new vaccine in the French vaccination strategy. Since Friday, the High Authority for Health (HAS) has given the green light to the Novavax vaccine against Covid-19. This one is not based on messenger RNA, unlike Pfizer and Moderna, a technology regularly at the heart of the arguments of the unvaccinated. It can be administered to people who cannot receive messenger RNA for medical reasons, as well as to “people reluctant to this type of vaccine”according to the opinion of the HAS.

France still has just under five million unvaccinated people, according to official figures from the Ministry of Health. Will a party take the plunge with Novavax? This is what Vincent Enouf, virologist at the Institut Pasteur, hopes. “It’s a more classic vaccine”he admits on LCI (see video at the top of this article). “You have an adjuvant that helps boost the immune system. Maybe unvaccinated people today will have more confidence in these types of vaccines.”

The first doses should arrive in France at the beginning of February. “It’s an opportunity, an alternative for all people who have a phobia of messenger RNA”analysis for LCI Philippe Amouyel, professor of public health at the University Hospital of Lille. “We already had vaccines that weren’t messenger RNA – AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson – but got a bad rap and very little use.”

To confer immunity, Novavax uses a recombinant protein. Technology already in use “for whooping cough or hepatitis B”says Professor Amouyel. “It’s much more classic. Many people procrastinate, want a French vaccine, non-messenger RNA but still effective… Novavax could meet certain criteria.”

If some non-vaccinated could take the plunge, it will probably not be the case for all. On social networks, several Internet users are already sharpening their arguments against this vaccine. “Where is it made? In the United States. So not for me”can we for example read. “The new Novavax vaccine is funded by Bill Gates”is it still written.

Others are more direct: “I will definitely refuse a vaccine against this virus” ; “I don’t inject myself on government orders.” For Novavax, the game therefore seems far from over.