Covid-19 and flu: why doctors fear an explosive cocktail

Fall 2020, a patient at his doctor's office with fever, cough, fatigue.

Flu or Covid-19?

"This is the whole difficulty," notes the virologist Vincent Enouf of the Institut Pasteur.

But if he is vaccinated, it will be easier to eliminate the first option.

“The seasonal flu vaccination - the campaign for which begins in mid-October - a tool in the fight against the coronavirus?

More and more doctors, scientists and politicians are supporting the idea.

Not that the flu vaccine protects against Covid.

No.

But it could limit the coexistence of diseases, so feared by caregivers.

In the winter of 2018-2019, the epidemic, however short, of influenza alone affected 1.8 million people, killed 8,100 and led to intensive care nearly 2,000. However, the major challenge is the preservation of our hospital capacities.

Another objective is to prevent huge traffic jams in laboratories carrying out PCR tests, as the first symptoms of the two pathologies can be similar.

“And then, let's say it, living two simultaneous episodes, Covid and flu, can be fatal for patients.

When the body has already fought a gigantic battle, it is difficult to start another.

You don't play the Wimbledon final, the day after Roland-Garros!

», Proclaims Jean-François Mattéi, former Minister of Health and current president of the Academy of Medicine.

"We are organizing to vaccinate more"

In June, the High Authority for Health estimated that it was necessary to continue the vaccination orientation in force in France, targeting the elderly, obese, with chronic diseases and pregnant women (i.e. 12 million insured persons invited to immunize for free).

Jean-François Mattéi goes further.

“It must be made compulsory for those over 65 and for caregivers.

An idea taken up this weekend by Renaud Muselier, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, where the virus continues to spread too quickly.

In Le Parisien-Today in France, renowned immunologist Alain Fischer, calls on the entire population, including children, to protect themselves from the flu.

“Be careful though.

The risk of too broad an incentive is not to have enough doses to vaccinate the most vulnerable, ”nuance Carine Wolf-Thal, the president of the Order of Pharmacists, whose pharmacies are on top of the wheel.

"We are organizing to vaccinate more," she continues, "and believe that we must increase the number of vaccinators.

One can imagine a combination of PCR test and influenza vaccine performed by pharmacist biologists, ”she suggests.

But faced with a population historically reluctant to vaccination (only 46.8% of people at risk of complications received the injection during the 2018-2019 season), the health authorities will have to redouble their teaching.

How? 'Or' What ?

Mystery, none of the health authorities contacted was able to explain the strategy to come.