"I really want to do it, but on the other hand I'm afraid," Thérèse confides to her pharmacist, leaning on the counter at the start of the Friday afternoon.
Monday, March 15, this 68-year-old woman had an appointment with her husband of the same age to receive a first injection of AstraZeneca, in this same dispensary in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, close to Place Voltaire.
This was without counting the announcement that day by the President of the Republic of the suspension of vaccination with the Swedish-British serum.
The two meetings of the retired couple were immediately canceled.
"I was not unhappy that this was not done for us on Monday, because this story about the risk of blood clots really scared me!
»Exclaims Thérèse.
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And now, is she reassured since the favorable opinion of the European agency, this Thursday?
Not entirely.
“I have a history of pulmonary embolism, so no, I'm not at ease,” she explains.
But despite these uncertainties tinged with fear, she will get vaccinated as soon as she can.
"Otherwise we're never going to get away with this story, so now we have to go!"
»She thunders, as if to convince herself.
And on the side of her husband who is waiting in the car, no reluctance, rather even impatience.
It remains to watch for the arrival of doses.
Aude, the pharmacist, promises that she will call them as soon as she finds out more.
"No visibility on the arrival of the bottles"
Because for the moment, impossible to predict when the injections will be able to resume here.
Admittedly, the General Directorate of Health (DGS) officially gave at 4.30 p.m. this Friday its authorization for a resumption of vaccination with AstraZeneca in general practitioners and in pharmacies.
But that doesn't say when Aude will receive further doses.
"I am not planning anything for next week, because I have no visibility on the arrival of the bottles, while I have very long waiting lists", she laments, confiding that she "does not have" not too much morale ”.
"It's difficult to organize and people ask us a lot of questions to which we have no answers," sighs the pharmacist.
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In fact, only the very few pharmacies that still had stocks of AstraZeneca were able to start vaccinating again this Friday and this weekend.
For the others, it will be necessary to wait until the middle of next week, with the resumption of deliveries from Monday.
"But in general, vaccination in pharmacies should be very slowed until the end of March and even the beginning of April, because of the logistics", warns Carine Wolf Than, president of the National Order of Pharmacists, who advises rather turn to centers or general practitioners.
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"If we are late in vaccination, it is less because of the suspension of AstraZeneca for a few days than the lack of doses", also notes Jacques Battistoni, president of the national union of general practitioners MG France.
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As for withdrawals, linked to possible doubts about the vaccine, they seem marginal.
"Out of twenty people, we only had two cancellations, and again, for one it was because he had found another way to get vaccinated faster," says Hélène, in the street pharmacy. of Folie-Régnault.
A little further, near Père-Lachaise, Renée and Marie are chatting.
The two retirees, aged 80 and 87, were vaccinated a few days ago at Pfizer in the Olympe-de-Gouges vaccination center, across the street.
But they would not have refused the AstraZeneca.
"It is better to have a vaccine with side effects, than no vaccine at all when you risk dying from Covid," says Renée.
More or less the message of the experts of the World Health Organization.
The AstraZeneca vaccine "continues to have a positive benefit-risk profile, with enormous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths worldwide," they insisted on Friday in a statement.