On December 27, Mauricette, the first vaccinated in France against Covid-19, opened the ball.
Almost four months later, a symbolic bar has just been crossed: more than 10 million French people have received a first injection and 3.6 million, the second.
An additional step in this vaccination campaign, far from being a long quiet river.
Lack of doses, rare unsuspected side effects, mistrust… Failures that do not overshadow great successes.
The most important and unexpected is that of messenger RNA vaccines, which had never been tested on humans until then.
"Fortunately they are here!
», Exclaims Odile Launay, infectious disease specialist at the Parisian Cochin hospital and coordinator of the vaccination prevention group of the French-speaking Society of Infectious Pathology.
“Not only are they doing well, they're exceptionally efficient.
"
Protection against the South African variant
A risky bet which therefore proved to be a winner for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech who bet, from the start, on this innovative technology.
From now on, their sera will even have to be injected in a second dose, instead of that of their competitor AstraZeneca, in 600,000 patients under the age of 55 who had received their first injection with this vaccine.
This is what the High Authority for Health recommended this Friday.
As a reminder, rare blood clots had been reported in rather young people, after a first injection, causing a change in the age criteria.
Another opinion of the health authority: “It clearly appears that AstraZeneca does not induce a sufficient protective response against the so-called South African variant.
Consequently, in Moselle, where this mutant is very present, it will still be necessary to rely on messenger RNA.
The level of protection of Pfizer, which represents 73% of injections in France, is even higher than expected.
"Our vaccine is 100% effective against this variant, it's a huge surprise", announces David Lepoittevin, the group's spokesperson for France.
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"Pfizer is developing two drugs against Covid"
Does this good news call for others?
As the American pharmaceutical giant reveals to us: with its German partner BioNTech, Pfizer is currently working on antiviral treatments.
The multinational has understood this well: if we must prevent, we must also cure.
And on this ground, the disappointments were numerous.
"We are in the process of developing two drugs against Covid", details the spokesperson, one in oral form, the other intravenously.
If the group is still only at the beginning, the results in the laboratory, on the first, have been encouraging.
Enough to encourage the lab to embark on a study.
As for the other treatment, it is already the subject of a clinical trial in hospitalized patients.
One more hope.
"No risk does not exist"
If messenger RNA vaccines are on the rise, "we should not, however, neglect or reject AstraZeneca, nevertheless warns virologist Marie-Paule Kieny, also chair of the Covid-19 vaccine committee.
Indeed, the vaccination campaigns of the Pfizer-BioNTech product have also brought to light rare cases of anaphylactic shock
(Editor's note: serious allergies)
.
Let us not forget that as with drugs, whether paracetamol or aspirin, there is no such thing as zero risk.
"Four serious cases of unusual blood clots have also just been reported after the injection of Janssen serum, the European drug agency announced, while this vaccine is expected in ten days in France.
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Despite everything, reaching out for vaccination remains the solution to extricate yourself from this crisis, repeat the experts.
“The risk is minimal and now that this complication is known, the diagnosis will be made more quickly,” says infectious disease specialist Odile Launay.
The curves speak for themselves.
That of hospitalizations over 75 years is pointing down.
And in Israel, where nearly half of the population is protected, the circulation of the virus is declining and "infections are also decreasing in the unvaccinated population", continues Marie-Paule Kieny.
As a foretaste of better days in France?
The virologist nods.
“This means that in France, this summer, we will be able to find a social life with much less risk.
It still takes a little patience.
"