" There is no miracle.
As of February 8, there will be many more second injections than first ones.
The Ministry of Health is preparing the spirits for a month of uncertainty regarding vaccination.
The decision not to space the two injections apart and the shortage of available doses will force France to move steadily forward in the field of immunity.
The direct consequence of the option taken by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, against the opinion of the High Authority for Health and the National Medicines Safety Agency, will be the priority given to second doses among the 800,000 currently in stock and those that will be received in the coming weeks.
A strategy in line with that initially planned by France and which consists of making the second appointment at the same time as the first or at the time of the injection in certain vaccination centers.
In the field, the instruction was passed to prioritize compliance with the vaccination schedule, which occasionally led to the cancellation of the first injections to favor people who had received the first dose by forgetting to schedule the second appointment.
After procrastination at the launch, the Ministry of Health is rather reassuring on the general ability to honor the appointments made but admits that "there may have been overbooking in some departments".
Waiting lists to streamline operations
"In this case, the national instruction is to postpone, not to cancel", it is specified by the authority, which plans to set up a waiting list system to streamline operations.
The number of people eligible for a second dose remains low today given the very slow start of the first days of the vaccination campaign.
For another week, the pace of the first injections will remain sustained, before devoting the majority of capacities to finalizing the immunization.
The slots open to those over 75 added daily over a period of four weeks will therefore be rare.
By the end of February, the Ministry of Health expects 4.6 million injected doses: 1.55 million people should have received their two injections of Pfizer or Moderna and 1.5 million only the first.
The good news concerns nursing homes, considered to be of high priority given the clusters that have been born there since the start of the epidemic.
The first part of the vaccination campaign should be completed around February 6, with 448,000 people affected, ie an adhesion rate close to 75% according to the Ministry of Health.
Britain's AstraZeneca will not offer the hoped-for growth lever for the moment.
130 million doses expected by the end of August
While waiting for a marketing authorization in early February which will in particular have to specify the effectiveness of this vaccine on people over 65 years of age, briefly questioned in Germany, France and the European Union are annoyed by the delays.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health formalized the extent of the damage: only 4.6 million expected doses will be available by the end of March, "26% of the 17.5 million doses scheduled for order".
That is to say a shortfall of 13 million doses.
In December, the firm announced that it would only be able to deliver 10 million doses in the first quarter.
This slowness triggered "a very great disappointment" at the Ministry of Health: "The company should have started production in December to put vaccines in stock and deliver them as soon as the MA is obtained".
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
Despite these obstacles, Olivier Véran is maintaining the course of a campaign completed before the end of the summer, with "130 million doses expected by the end of August".
On two conditions which hover like threats more and more serious: "that the vaccines are validated and that the deliveries follow".
