Vaccinate faster to better prepare for the arrival of the variant.
This is what the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends, which wants to space the injection of two doses of vaccines by six weeks, instead of three to four weeks currently.
This option is a "reasonable" option to protect the most vulnerable and deal with the "epidemic outbreak", assures the HAS in a report published on Saturday.
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"In a context of limitation in the number of vaccine doses and in order to allow an increase in the vaccination coverage of the most vulnerable people in the short term, the extension of the time between two vaccine doses is an option to be considered", continues the HAS .
1/4 # Press release |
# COVID19 The HAS recommends extending to 6 weeks the time between the 2 doses of mRNA vaccine (Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna) for all
➡ Accelerate #vaccination and deal with the epidemic outbreak
👉https: //t.co / Pb5Mv3aAmn
Notice 👉https: //t.co/yCDnw6yRq7 pic.twitter.com/50XRZT6t5e
- Haute Autorité de santé (@HAS_sante) January 23, 2021
"Limited" risk of loss of vaccine efficacy
The vaccination schedule followed so far is the administration of two doses at least 21 days apart for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 28 days for that produced by Moderna.
The extension of the injection time of the two doses will make it possible to "accelerate the administration of the first dose to the most vulnerable people", that is, according to the projections of the HAS, at least 700,000 additional people "who would be protected by the vaccine ”on the first month of application of this measure.
At the individual level, "the risk of loss of efficacy" of the vaccine between two doses "seems limited", indicates the HAS.
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The results of the phase 3 clinical trials for the messenger RNA vaccines “show an efficacy of the Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer BioNtech which starts from the 12th day after the first dose and that of the Moderna vaccine from the 14th day after the first dose », She explains.
Subsequently, the oldest people vaccinated "show a satisfactory immunological response and a vaccine efficacy similar to that found in the youngest people".
Conditions to respect
But for such a measure of spacing of vaccine doses to accelerate vaccination coverage and slow down the circulation of the virus, the High Authority considers that three prerequisites must be met.
The first: vaccinate those most at risk in order of priority, namely those aged 75 and over, then "those aged 65 to 74, starting with those with comorbidities", and therefore more risk of deaths related to Covid.
Second, the implementation of this modification of the vaccination schedule must be “rapid”.
Third, “all available doses of both vaccines” must be used and “vaccine capacity including, during potential periods of lockdown” must be maintained.
