Vaccination against influenza must “redouble efforts” in France after a “much slower start” than in previous years, which raises “fears of a return to the level of coverage” pre-Covid, the OECD said on Monday. The reminders are piling up. After pharmacists, health authorities and the government, it is now the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that is concerned about the fall in the rate of influenza vaccination.
“A much slower start than in the past two years”
The official campaign, launched on October 18, is suffering from a “much slower start than over the past two years, raising fears of a return to a pre-pandemic level of coverage”, i.e. “only around 50% “among the population aged 65 and over, indicates the institution on the sidelines of its annual “panorama” of European health systems. This report underlines that the eruption of Covid had boosted the vaccination rate of seniors on the old continent, from 37% in 2019 to 44% in 2020, while France had recorded a jump of 8 points and reached the threshold of 60%. .
A level “more or less maintained” in 2021, but still far from the 75% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which other countries are however close to, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Denmark . But the latest figures confirm the relapse: with 5 million vaccines reimbursed by Health Insurance as of November 20, France is 13% behind last year.
The health data specialist IQVIA for its part lists 9.3 million doses distributed by pharmacies, or 8% less than at the same stage of the campaign in 2021. “We will therefore have to redouble our efforts during the current national campaign to maintain and even increase the higher levels achieved in the first year of the pandemic,” the OECD said.
Source: Europe1
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