About 5 million elderly or “very high risk” people are targeted as a priority for a “booster dose” of anti-Covid vaccine from mid-September, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday. This figure mainly includes residents of nursing homes and long-term care units (USLD), people over 80 living “at home”, as well as patients “at very high risk of severe form” of Covid and “immunocompromised” patients. Invited from Europe Morning Friday, the epidemiologist and president of the Covid cell of the National Academy of Medicine, Yves Buisson considered this decision too premature.
“People who need a booster are people with weakened immune systems for a variety of reasons, whether it’s innate or induced by drugs and certain diseases. And these people are already being indicated. booster vaccination, “he said.
Vaccination of the population, “the priority”
“To give a third dose to everyone, starting with the oldest and most vulnerable people, is too much anticipation. First because the cellular immunity linked to antibodies is very difficult to measure in practice and then because we do not yet see among vaccinated people serious forms of coronavirus requiring hospitalization and resuscitation, “he said.
According to the epidemiologist, we must indeed start by vaccinating all French people. “There are huge holes in the immune coverage of our population. We are far from the 90% vaccination coverage rate that must be achieved to control the circulation of the epidemic. And the urgency of the emergencies is the vulnerable or co-morbid elderly people who have not yet been vaccinated, “he continued. “The booster injection will probably be necessary for everyone, but talking about it now, when we have not finished vaccinating the population, it is premature,” said the epidemiologist.
“No scientific arguments to support this decision”
For him, it is unthinkable at the moment to communicate around this 3rd dose. “I don’t feel personally capable of carrying this educational effort. I would have a hard time explaining to a person who has had their two injections and been properly vaccinated that they need a booster. no sufficient scientific arguments to support this decision “, concluded the specialist.
The list of the populations concerned must still be formally established by the HAS, with a view to opening the appointments on September 1, for injections from September 15.
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