Slow start in nursing homes, delays in deliveries and finally ... cancellation of appointments, or even entire slots in dedicated centers.
Due to a growing mistrust of patients towards certain serums, AstraZeneca in the lead, the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 has experienced new setbacks in recent days, while the health authorities are however betting on a new rise in injections.
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Last weekend, 1,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, offered in vaccination centers in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, did not find a taker, when, in vaccinodromes such as that of the Stade de France or Saint- Quentin-en-Yvelines, these are entire niches, for which injections with Moderna serum are offered, which are shunned.
While these same niches quickly found a taker when the product from the Pfizer laboratory was offered, however, like its counterpart Moderna, based on the same messenger RNA technology ”.
"They tell me: I'm afraid, I don't want to ..."
If patients do not have the right to choose their vaccine and are supposed to receive the one related to their age group or pathology (AstraZeneca for those over 55 years of age with comorbidities or over 70 years, which can be injected at pharmacists or city doctors or Pfizer and Moderna, inoculated only in vaccination centers, for all patients with a high-risk pathology of severe form of Covid-19 or those over 70 years old), in fact, they are more in addition to trying to choose the product that will be inoculated to them, the caregivers are desperate.
A burdensome situation for the latter, forced to increase their workload, or even throw away certain doses.
#Vaccination # COVID19 |
The list of people who can be vaccinated against Covid-19 continues to evolve.
✅From now on, anyone over the age of 70 can make an appointment.
All the key information at a glance to find your way around ⤵ pic.twitter.com/s0zicXXTWn
- Ministry of Solidarity and Health (@Sante_Gouv) March 25, 2021
"In the space of four weeks, the vaccination indications have changed five times for the AstraZeneca vaccine", deplores Anne Ferdinand, general practitioner in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), who is authorized to administer doses to her patients of over 55 years with comorbidities since February 25, but must "reorganize permanently".
The various cases of thrombosis that occurred after these injections and whose link has not yet been confirmed by the European Medicines Agency - despite the statements of one of its managers on Tuesday - largely contributed to the disenchantment of his patients .
"The episode of suspension for a few days added to the general mistrust vis-à-vis this vaccine," said the doctor.
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“My patients over 55 who agreed to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca are no longer so and only want Pfizer or Moderna.
They tell me:
I'm afraid, I don't want to
… And, when they present the criteria, they register in a velodrome to receive another product, ”notes Dr. Ferdinand, who qualifies this mistrust by also describing the situation of "patients under 55 who wish to be vaccinated quickly by doctors, but cannot, because they are no longer eligible for AstraZeneca".
A patient in the hospital and a "loss of opportunity"
Consequence: the caregiver must throw away doses.
“Out of five bottles of eleven opened doses, I was only able to finish one.
Last Saturday again, out of eleven meetings, I had two refusals.
”So the doctor thinks of stopping her first-time vaccinations soon to perform only reminders, because she believes that her waiting list will soon run out of steam.
Anne Ferdinand is however aware that this mistrust can have serious consequences.
“Three weeks ago, I offered AstraZeneca to an eligible patient,” she recalls.
He refused, he did not want it, but today he is hospitalized on oxygen after being infected with the English variant.
I did not insist, but it also causes a loss of luck also at the individual level ”.
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This circumspection is palpable on social networks.
“I want to choose my vaccine.
AstraZeneca which changes its name to Vaxzevria, I don't want it.
I suffer from co-morbidities and I refuse this vaccine that many countries reject, ”writes one Internet user.
"I do not want AstraZeneca", "No thank you", commented others, yet also eligible for an injection.
And Cécile (assumed name), pharmacist in Élancourt (Yvelines), also notes this obvious skepticism on a daily basis.
"I managed not to waste a single dose of vaccine, but I had to fight for it," she blows, lambasting a "phenomenal waste of time" in her dispensary, because of the appointments. you vaccination with the British Swedish product not honored for the past few days.
"We had however made waiting lists, but we have patients who do not come because they have found an appointment in the velodrome of Saint-Quentin which does Pfizer or Moderna, or have changed their minds" , decrypts the pharmacist.
Others, she recounts, told her they preferred to wait for the Jenssen vaccine, which only requires one dose, to arrive on the market.
“People are afraid of AstraZeneca.
The suspension did a lot of harm.
Now, they tell us:
I want to choose my vaccine
", estimates Cécile, who received her first dose before the age restrictions and describes herself as" 3000% pro vaccination ".
“I could not accelerate the pace, she assures, because now, I do not have enough people on my waiting list.
"
"We have people who left when they found out it was AstraZeneca"
In Gravelines, in the North, there are even several hundred doses of AstraZeneca that did not find a taker last weekend.
Thierry Mraovic, the coordinator of the city's vaccination center, open every weekend, saw the difference with other weekends.
“We only know on Thursday from the ARS
(Regional Health Agency)
, what are the allocations that are granted to us for the weekend and we are opening slots accordingly on Doctolib.
When we had 1,500 doses of Pfizer or 800 of Moderna, our schedule filled up in two hours.
But there, while I went out of my way to have more than the 300 doses of AstraZeneca that the ARS offered me, we could only fill the Saturday morning slots and we closed the rest of the week. weekend… ”, regrets the manager of this center, which mobilizes around thirty people.
Of the 300 slots offered, only 109 found a taker.
And some patients have backed down.
“We have people who came to the reception and left when they found out it was AstraZeneca.
A center in Dunkirk, which was complete with Pfizer, tried to send us patients eligible for AstraZeneca but many refused ", reports Thierry Mraovic, well aware of the existence of" a controversy around real facts about risks and complications ”.
According to him, this product is not made to be used in vaccination centers, "it should especially be used in town, where doctors have more time to do education with their patients" and, insists the caregiver. , continue to communicate on the benefits it brings to patients.
Fortunately, says the professional, the doses were not thrown away: the unopened vials were returned to the hospital pharmacy.
The Moderna, also denied?
Depending on the geographic area, this mistrust can also be embodied in other vaccines, without any plausible explanation emerging to date.
As we revealed to you on Monday, while the efficacy between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is similar, since the opening of the Saint-Denis vaccinodrome, which relies on 10,000 weekly injections, reservations on Doctolib show that the slots for Pfizer doses are in much greater demand than those for Moderna's serum.
“The ARS tells us that Moderna also ends in A, like AstraZeneca… was trying to understand in our pages Katy Bontinck, first deputy mayor of Saint-Denis.
It can be played out a few things but what is certain is that the choice of vaccine seems very important in the eyes of the public ”.
"Perhaps because Pfizer was launched first, it is probably the best known, but (...) it is the same technology, it is the same thing", also wondered in the morning Stéphane Troussel, president of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, on BFMTV.
The same goes for the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome.
While no more appointment is offered for an injection with Pfizer, dozens of slots linked to doses of Moderna are still waiting for a taker on Tuesday.
