Tuesday April 6, the Stade de France vaccine park (Seine-Saint-Denis) welcomes its first volunteers, with a first objective of 10,000 injections per week. French army training hospitals are also planning to increase their reception capacities to vaccinate up to 50,000 people per week.
Our journalist Delphine Roucaute answered your questions about the government’s vaccination strategy.
Alex Térieur: The AstraZeneca vaccine does not have a good press at the moment and centers are already unable to fill up. Whether this is rational or not, many people would rather take the risk of waiting for a Pfizer appointment than getting an AZ vaccine immediately. Doesn’t this risk upsetting the French (or even global) vaccine strategy?
The feedback from the field is, for the moment, very mixed. Many doctors testify that nearly 30% of their AstraZeneca vaccination appointments were canceled last week. Proportions that can be found in some pharmacies. However, city medicine health professionals (mainly doctors and pharmacists, but also nurses who now have the right to prescribe in addition to injecting the vaccine) have managed to administer a very large proportion of their doses. , because until then there were very few (one to two bottles maximum per practice or dispensary each week). If we had to summarize the situation: admittedly, distrust of AstraZeneca is setting in, but, as we receive few doses, they are used.
MrErreurLogistique: I remain extremely shocked by this impression of lack of preparation for this vaccination campaign.
Indeed, it is quite simply the lack of doses so far that has conditioned the schedule for opening vaccinodromes. For Thierry Breton, the Commissioner responsible for the industrial section of the European vaccination strategy, “The air gap that we recorded comes solely from delivery faults from AstraZeneca”. In the first quarter, the laboratory only supplied a quarter of the planned orders to the European Union. It is also a hot topic of discussion at European level.
Question: I am 54 years old, I received a first dose of AstraZeneca by my GP. I’m wondering about the possible second dose. What will be the instructions for 50-55 year olds vaccinated with AstraZeneca, which should not be that rare?
You are not the only one asking yourself this question. All people under the age of 55 vaccinated with a first dose of AstraZeneca (the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, is also one of them) are suspended from the notice to be published by the High Authority for Health (HAS) this week. Do I need a second dose? With which vaccine (s)? After how many weeks? These are all questions to which the independent authority must provide answers. We will keep you informed as soon as its opinion is communicated to us.
Lapounou37: Why not make vaccination compulsory? Why will a minority of antivaxes slow down the end of this epidemic?
This is a question that poses very important ethical issues. It is particularly debated for caregivers, who already have the obligation to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, for example. In an opinion delivered last week, the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) wrote:
“CCNE reiterates the ethical requirement that vaccination represents for all health professionals and medico-social professionals and hopes that the positive dynamics of vaccination observed will continue, or even accelerate among these professionals. “. But it also alerts’ sthe fact that a vaccination obligation – admissible from a legal or labor law standpoint – would not be suitable in a situation of low supply of vaccine doses, nor in a context of scalability and uncertainties generating situations of ‘inconsistency and sometimes contradictory decisions that can provoke strong negative reactions. “
As you can see, the question is complex and must be debated, especially with those first concerned. When we see the difficulty in finding a place in certain regions, I admit having difficulty understanding why the government continues to extend the list of eligible people.
Guillaume: My mother, 74, with cancer, has still not been able to find an appointment. And if each available space is taken by people who are less at risk, but faster on the Doctolib site, it can take weeks.
The problem you are pointing out is important. By early April, nearly 60% of those over 75 had been vaccinated. A good figure, but insufficient to allow vaccination coverage in this category, which is the one with the most risk of developing a serious form of the disease. The executive decided to open up vaccination more widely (to everyone over 70) because some regions reported difficulties in filling all the slots offered for vaccination in the centers. These included the Ile-de-France, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur.
The Ministry of Health insists, however, on the fact that the category of 75 years and over remains a high priority. This is why a system has been put in place by Medicare to call people in this category who still do not have an appointment, by giving them, in particular, a skip-the-line number to have access. priority in the center.
Keorl: How much will vaccine deliveries accelerate over the next few weeks?
To give you an idea, France has received around 15 million doses in three months, since the opening of the vaccination at the very end of December. For the month of April alone, we expect 12 million doses, and 15 million in May, in particular thanks to the rise of Janssen, but also of Pfizer and Moderna. In June, a new milestone should be crossed, with more than 25 million doses over the month. The arrival of CureVac scheduled for July (but not yet confirmed!) Should allow an even stronger rise during the summer holidays.
Iskandar: Fed up. Vaccination alone will never make it possible to get out of it, we will still live semi-confined for a long time. Macron failed, we cannot live with the virus, he must be dismissed with article 68 of the Constitution.
It is true that vaccination alone will not make it possible to get out of it. We must first succeed in controlling the contaminations, during this third wave, and for the future. However, health professionals all agree that it is the vaccination that will get our heads out of the water.
The executive’s objective, that is to say that all French people who wish to be vaccinated by the end of the summer, is achievable given the number of doses expected. It is now necessary that the laboratories keep their commitments, that we succeed in producing more vaccine components in Europe, especially in France (several factories have started to ensure the bottling phase), and that the pace follows in the vaccination centers and in pharmacies and surgeries.
Papou57: Explain to me why I have to be vaccinated if I have neither comorbidity nor am a person at risk.
This is called vaccine solidarity! If the vaccination remains confined to adults, it will be necessary to reach very high vaccination coverage thresholds in order to be able to return to a normal life, that is to say without barrier gestures or restrictions. Without this, the virus will continue to circulate quietly among populations developing asymptomatic forms (children or young populations in general), causing the resurgence here and there of epidemic foci which, if they are not extinguished quickly, may cause an oil stain.
Getting vaccinated is not just to protect yourself from disease and death; this should allow society to resume the functioning of society without the ax of going back to the barrier gestures that have been hindering us collectively for over a year.