After the "yes" for children at risk, the general "yes".
The High Authority for Health (HAS) gave its agreement on Monday to the vaccination of all children aged 5 to 11 with Pfizer.
Olivier Véran announced this weekend that the campaign could start on December 22, subject to such an agreement from the HAS.
The National Consultative Ethics Council (CCNE) also spoke out in favor of vaccination on Friday, December 17.
Several factors motivated HAS to make this decision. While acknowledging that "severe forms of Covid-19 rarely affect children", the agency adds that "nearly 80% of them are found in children without comorbidities". In other words, the benefit / risk ratio for immunizing healthy children is “favorable” on an individual level.
On the other hand, vaccinating children "could potentially reduce the impact of subsequent waves by reducing the circulation of the virus in the general population", indicates the HAS in its opinion.
Such an effect would however depend on maintaining the efficacy of the vaccines over time against the Omicron variant, and on adherence to the vaccination in the parents (the agreement of at least one of them is necessary).
According to the latest Public Health France survey, more than half of adults do not want their child vaccinated for the moment.
Six million children vaccinated in the United States
In practice, the HAS proposes to prioritize college students who are very close to being 12 years old.
Vaccinating her child must be done within the framework of "a shared medical decision, without making it exigible or compulsory", she insists.
The two doses of the pediatric vaccine (three times the dose of the adult vaccine) should be given three weeks apart.
With this decision, France joins other countries already launched in the vaccination of all children.
Six million Americans aged 5 to 11 have received a first dose of the vaccine and no serious side effects (myocarditis, pericarditis, etc.) have been identified, said the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC).
Read alsoVaccination of children against Covid-19: why is the American case special?
Tuesday, November 30, the HAS had recommended to vaccinate as soon as possible the little ones suffering from comorbidities or living in the entourage of a fragile person.
Their number is estimated at around 360,000, out of a total of nearly 6 million children aged 5 to 11, and injections can already begin for them.
Doctors and pharmacists were also able to order their first doses of pediatric Pfizer vaccine on Monday, that is to say three times less dosed than the classic version and with an orange cap.