It is with him that the world is stung first.
The Covid-19 vaccine produced by the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance has already been injected into hundreds of thousands of patients in the United Kingdom, in the United States in Canada, and soon in Switzerland.
It is also he who, a priori, will land first in Europe, no doubt from December 27.
The European Medicines Agency has accelerated its schedule since it will meet this Monday to deliberate on this product, one week before the date initially planned.
And yet, if we talk a lot about Pfizer, we should not forget that it will not be enough to vaccinate an entire population.
The European Commission has pre-ordered 200 million doses, plus an optional 100 million.
As each country obtains a share proportional to its population and France has 15% of the inhabitants of the European Union, it will receive between 30 and 45 million doses.
Except that it takes two per patient and that not all will arrive at once, due to production delays.
"It is a high-risk campaign that looms," warns the health economist Frédéric Bizard, while vulnerable people in nursing homes will be priority.
“Let's do with it and rejoice!
"
“Yes, there won't be enough doses with Pfizer alone.
But as soon as we have an answer, we ask ourselves ten questions, it's fabulous.
We will already have a first vaccine, let's do with it and celebrate!
“, Urges Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the Immunology and Infectious Diseases department at Henri-Mondor hospital, in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).
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Moderna's vaccine should follow in January, provided that the European Medicines Agency gives its agreement there too.
As for Pfizer, it has advanced its schedule.
It will meet on January 6, instead of the 12 initially planned.
Europe has already pre-ordered 80 million doses from the American firm.
80 million additional optional were even released this Friday.
This potentially represents 24 million doses intended for the French market.
But all these injectable vaccines will obviously not arrive at the same time.
For the moment, France will be delivered "by the end of the year" of about 1.16 million doses, then "we should receive 677,000 additional doses around January 5-6" and "about 1, 6 million doses in February, ”Jean Castex told the National Assembly on Wednesday.
More "classic" vaccines could benefit
The Prime Minister himself mentioned other manufacturers in his speech on the vaccination strategy vis-à-vis MPs.
“At this point, of course, we are relying on the most advanced vaccines, the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine.
Others are in phase 3 of clinical trials, such as AstraZeneca or Janssen, and could therefore be available in the coming months, ”he said.
These last two, unlike the first two, do not work with messenger RNA technology.
This has never been tested on such a large scale for a vaccine and it thus raises fears and questions among some citizens.
They also do not need to be transported while respecting the cold chain (at -80 degrees for the Pfizer vaccine!).
And they just might take advantage of it.
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"If we realize that the adenovirus vaccines [like AstraZeneca or Janssen, editor's note] do as well but that we are not bothered by these logistical questions, the question of which is the best will be quickly resolved" , slice Yvon Le Flohic, general practitioner and who follows very little the arrival of vaccines.
If pharmacovigilance leads to the identification of undesirable effects due to the first products, those not yet marketed could also adapt.
Still uncertainties
There are also many parameters that we do not yet control, such as the impact on contagiousness.
At the beginning of December, the Haute Autorité de Santé was unable to ensure that the vaccines would prevent the transmission of the virus, in addition to limiting the serious forms of the disease.
“We do not yet have data on this point for any of the vaccine candidates, it is still a very important question.
Will everyone have the same results?
There are so many parameters to take into account… ”sighs Yvon Le Flohic.
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Jean-Daniel Lelièvre calls for his side to "beware of fantasies about new technologies", referring to RNA.
"There are regular technological developments which are what they are, and which do not pose as many questions as that", adds the doctor.
As in their announcements this fall on each equally impressive efficacy results, the major pharmaceutical groups are engaged this time in a sort of race for marketing authorizations. But these commercial and financial issues are somewhat beyond the reach of the medical community. "Knowing how they will position themselves in relation to each other is the least of my concerns," says Jean-Daniel Lelièvre.