“We move forward as best we can, day by day, without real certainties. “ In this Auvergne occupational health service, the Covid-19 vaccination campaign has imposed itself on the doctors’ agenda and is accompanied by a multitude of problems to be resolved. What to do, for example, if only three employees show up for a vaccination session when a vial of vaccine contains… ten doses? How can we guarantee, moreover, in the name of medical confidentiality, that two employees of the same company do not cross paths on the premises? “It may seem anecdotal, but these reflections and the implementation of solutions take us a considerable amount of time”, explains a doctor.
In fact, with the opening of vaccination to occupational health services at the end of February, occupational physicians, in Auvergne as elsewhere, have embarked on a campaign rich in unknowns and requiring significant preparatory work. “ It has been a month and a half since working groups were set up to organize it ”, explains Muriel Legent, doctor in the Oise at the Médisis occupational health service. The center was able to carry out its first injections in the second half of March, thus joining other centers and independent services present within large companies.
At Axa, for example, the vaccination began on March 9. It was launched on the 15th at Safran. In total, 1,691 occupational physicians had ordered doses at the beginning of the week of March 29, out of the 5,000 in France, according to the Secretary of State in charge of occupational health, which see it “A first step before a gradual ramp-up”.
Small beginnings
In the field, health professionals recognize it: the beginnings of this vaccination campaign are modest. First of all because of the target audience. For now, only employees aged 55 to 64 with comorbidity (cardiovascular pathologies, type 1 and 2 diabetes, etc.) are concerned.
But this slow tempo has another explanation: the difficulty in obtaining doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “We prepared and then had to stay on the starting blocks for a long time to wait for the vaccine, explains an occupational doctor from Loiret. The start of the injections was therefore postponed by three weeks, to start on April 1 ”. For her part, Sibylle Quéré-Becker, director of social development at Axa France indicates: “We adapt the vaccination rhythm to the vials that the doctors receive”.
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