From Renaud Muselier, to Anne Hidalgo, via the town hall of Saint-Denis, on which the largest vaccinodrome in the country depends, the voices are more numerous to ask for an immediate enlargement of those eligible for vaccination.
Injections are still reserved for everyone over 55 with AstraZeneca and Janssen and over 60 for Pfizer and Moderna messenger RNA vaccines.
Supporters of a relaxation of the rules point to centers, which must sometimes draw up to below 50 years in their waiting list and on the health emergency.
“Of course we have to accelerate quickly, annoys Ludovic Toro, general practitioner and UDI mayor of Coubron.
In vaccination, there are three axes: that the most fragile people do not end up in intensive care or do not die, cut the spread of the virus and avoid the appearance of variants.
Mauricette was vaccinated in December.
Five million eligible people did not come and meanwhile the death toll is rising.
We cannot say that we are ahead.
"
Vacant appointments
It is among the undecided that the government and the supporters of the national strategy are trying to mobilize.
Olivier Véran appealed on Tuesday to "4.3 million French people who are subject to vaccination and who have not yet been vaccinated" to try to reach 80% of these age groups.
This Wednesday, Jean Castex judged "premature" to change course, while specifying: "It is correct that we have a certain number of vaccination appointments which are not taken.
We are in the process of making a point but it is in our collective interest that all doses of vaccine be used.
If this phenomenon is confirmed, we will think about widening the audiences.
"
VIDEO.
Vaccination at the Stade de France: "We called on our waiting lists up to 45 years"
On the ground, already, it appears more and more difficult to sell the doses of AstraZeneca, for which the Ministry of Health continues to beat the recall, estimating that France "still needs to vaccinate several million people" of this serum. In ten days, the daily average went from 76,000 injections to 40,000. At Tenon hospital, where priority groups and caregivers are vaccinated, “we had to throw out doses, two weeks ago, for lack of of takers, like everyone unfortunately. And since then we have no more requests for this vaccine, ”regrets the infectious disease specialist, Gilles Pialoux.
"In the city office, nobody wants it anymore," adds Dr Toro.
Patients over 55, the only ones eligible for AstraZeneca, know that RNA vaccines offer better protection against variants and prefer to wait.
I try to explain that waiting increases the risk of catching the disease, but you have to convince.
"
Avoid congestion
Cramped on its strategy, the government is closely monitoring the availability of appointments.
This Wednesday, more than 300,000 were available on the site "Quickly my dose", which identifies the open slots, all vaccines combined, including a large majority for injections of Pfizer or Moderna.
"There is no mess", assured the president of the Council of orientation of the vaccine strategy, Alain Fischer, preferring to "go to seek" the most fragile.
Read also AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines: why France risks having too many doses in stock
The leading site for making appointments, Doctolib, has also followed the government line, through the voice of its boss, Stanislas Niox-Château, while suggesting that the switch could take place next week: "He There is no problem of mismatch between supply and demand in vaccination centers.
It's very difficult to go faster on Pfizer and Moderna […].
If we open it all over now, there will be a congestion and there will be no more appointments for two weeks.
[…] Next week, more than 70% of people over 60 (59% to date) will be vaccinated, it will be the right time.
"
