Vaccine against the Covid: the schedule becomes clearer

The very delicate Covid-19 vaccination campaign is now entering the practical work part.

The “first phase” of this extraordinary operation will concern, as planned, 1 million elderly people living in nursing homes.

These populations are among the most at risk, because of their age, and also because Covid-19 spreads faster in communities than at home.

Normally, the operation should start "at the beginning of January", Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday.

But the obstacle course is not over yet.

The European Medicines Agency still needs to validate the first vaccine available by then, that of Jean Castex.

and that the French High Authority of Health finds nothing to complain about.

General practitioners at work

The Minister of Health, cautious, has also suggested that "the date could change".

But everyone is in the starting blocks to take up the “immense” logistical challenge of January: it will be necessary to deliver 10,000 establishments throughout the territory, using vaccines stored at minus 80 °, and stored beforehand in hospitals. .

Then, detailed Olivier Véran, “the elderly will be offered a medical consultation, where they will be asked for their consent.

Families will be involved.

In case of agreement, a first injection will be given from this first appointment, then a second twenty-one days later ”.

The vaccine, throughout the campaign “will not be compulsory” and will be “free”.

Vaccination will in principle be "by the general practitioner, or the attending physician," said the Prime Minister.

The elderly at home will wait ... a little

The second part of the vaccination campaign will take place "from February March," said Jean Castex.

Fourteen million people will be affected.

These will first be the over 75s, home residents, starting with the most fragile, then the over 65s, as well as some nursing staff.

“We would have preferred that the elderly at home were also vaccinated first.

Why wait ?

We're wasting their time.

And how will they be delivered with vaccines?

Asks Pascal Champvert, president of the AD-PA association (Association of directors serving the elderly).

The vaccines used for this second wave should then be those from Pfizer BioNTech, and Moderna (both of which use the new technique known as Messenger RNA), and probably AstraZeneca / Oxford, if, here too, the health authorities validate them.

Thirdly, the entire population, with the exception of minors, will be concerned.

But no timetable is fixed, except that of 2021. Even if he wants to be careful not to be too directive, Jean Castex encourages to take the plunge: "We must be as many as possible to meet. get vaccinated to protect yourself and to protect others.

This is how we can then return to normal life.

»People under 18 can only be vaccinated if specific marketing authorizations are granted for these age groups, which is not the case for the moment.

The choice of transparency

It remains to convince public opinion.

For this, the government says it practices "transparency", and promises the creation of user committees.

Professor Alain Fischer, the new Mr. Vaccine, played his cards on the table by not hesitating to say loud and clear that "all the safety data related to vaccines were not yet known, that we still had to wait for scientific publications. ".

Evidence, already recalled several times by the scientific community, and which reassures patient associations, but which has triggered the wrath of opponents who cry blunder and already ask for his departure.

Ségolène Royal even daring to speak of a “disaster” appointment.

On the contrary, the government hopes to learn from the failures of previous campaigns, including that of the H1N1 flu, by relying on "expertise", including that of health agencies and not giving the impression of deciding everything to decide. up ... to try to convince the skeptics.

"On vaccines, the government will say very clearly what we know and what we do not know," said Emmanuel Macron, on a trip yesterday to Necker hospital (Paris XVth).