It’s time to take stock in Europe, where the vaccination campaign started 12 months ago. In France this Monday, it has been a year to the day since it was launched with the memory of Mauricette, the first vaccinated in the country on December 27, 2020 from her retirement home in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis). Since then, the campaign has reached a large audience through increased government communication and the implementation this summer of the health pass (vaccine, negative test or recent recovery) in all leisure and sports establishments or in major events. .
Where are we a year later, at the bottom of a new wave of the epidemic and facing the new variant Omicron? According to figures from the ministry of December 26, 2021, 52.7 million French people are first vaccinated against Covid, which corresponds to 78.2% of the total population. Among them, 51.5 million people had the necessary number of doses (one or two depending on the case), or 76.5% of the population. And while the authorities opened the third dose to the elderly and the most fragile before extending it to all adults at the end of November, 22 million French people have now received a booster dose.
But a year after the start of the campaign, the health situation remains delicate with more than 100,000 new cases counted on Saturday, December 25, a record daily report since March 2020. Focusing on the vaccination of children, recently open to over 5 years without obligation , and on the booster dose to curb contamination, the government is also increasing calls to non-vaccinated people, who account for 9% of the population over 20 years old, according to Drees.
If European countries have significant vaccine coverage, the campaign is very disparate across the planet. As proof, almost half of the world’s population has not yet received a dose (42.6% according to the platform Our world in data). To date, only 8% of people in poor countries have been vaccinated against Covid.