AstraZeneca's vaccine is effective on severe forms of Covid-19, hammered the Minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Wednesday, while vaccination among general practitioners is due to start Thursday in France with this vaccine.
“
It's what people think and what scientific studies show.
The latest scientific studies show that the AstraZeneca vaccine is very effective in severe forms.
And that's what we're looking for,
”defended the minister on Wednesday morning on LCI.
“
The vaccine may be moderately effective in starting the disease.
But since it is a disease which at 80% is relatively benign, it is not of practical significance, neither for you, nor for the health system
”, she explained.
Read also: Covid-19: should you get the AstraZeneca vaccine injected?
"
On the other hand, a severe form can have extremely deleterious consequences
", she continued, while emphasizing the "
simple logistics
" of the AstraZeneca vaccine: "
It has a simple administration, and it can notably benefit to general populations, including in developing countries
”.
The minister also refuted the notion of delay in the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in France.
"
Compared to our vaccination schedule, that is to say vaccinating a million people in January and 15 million vulnerable people in June, we are receiving the right number of doses, there is no lack.
In relation to the expectations of the population, which are stronger and who would like to be vaccinated more quickly, we are making sure to increase the production of vaccines
”, she underlined.
Finally, Ms. Pannier-Runacher defended the French laboratory Sanofi, under fire from critics for the delay taken by its own vaccine candidate.
"
Sanofi is the laboratory that will produce three vaccines,
" said Pannier-Runacher.
In addition to its own vaccine candidate, now expected at the end of the year, the group has indeed announced that it will produce doses of vaccines from Johnson & Johnson laboratories and Pfizer-BioNTech.
"
These three vaccines to arrive in production between June and September (...) We can welcome this responsibility and we hope that it will give good ideas to other laboratories, GSK, Merck, to position themselves as well. in vaccine production
, ”added the Minister.