It's no… for the moment.
In an opinion made public this Wednesday evening, the Council for the Orientation of the Vaccine Strategy (COSV) is opposed to a campaign of second vaccine reminders (most often, fourth doses) in the elderly.
“The available data do not currently call for the implementation of a second booster vaccine, although the question is made legitimate by the current context of strong viral circulation”, it is indicated.
Only immunocompromised people are concerned.
The body, chaired by immunologist Alain Fischer, is based in particular on a study by the British health agency showing that people aged at least 65 and who have received a first "booster" are protected up to 89 % against the risk of hospitalization from ten weeks after the injection.
In addition, in France, “the current hospitalization data provided by the DREEs indicate that the population having received their booster in September and October represents only a small contingent of people being hospitalized or in intensive care”, indicates the COSV.
According to our calculations, the hospitalization rate at the beginning of January was 12 times lower in a person aged 60 to 79 who received a booster dose than in someone who was not vaccinated at all, and 5 times lower compared to a third has not yet had her recall.
Read alsoFourth dose of vaccine against Covid-19: all the questions that remain unanswered
“Today, I have no evidence of the need for a 4th dose of vaccine.
It seems that we have well-preserved protection against serious forms with cellular immunity, even against Omicron, ”indicated Sunday at the Parisian Mathieu Molimard, head of the pharmacology department at the Bordeaux university hospital center.
Counterproductive measure?
The COSV advances another element justifying its position: the risk of robbing part of the population if a new campaign of recalls were decided.
“Such a measure could be interpreted as a signal of ineffectiveness of vaccination by public opinion and thus induce a risk of disengagement with regard to vaccination perceived as too frequent”, he indicates in his opinion.
Nevertheless, the committee chaired by Alain Fischer calls for "maintaining careful monitoring of the evolution of the curve of hospitalizations for people aged 80 or over who have received their first booster vaccine".
If it continued to climb, a second reminder could be offered to them.
More generally, the COSV says it is waiting for full real-life data to possibly review its position.
The High Authority for Health, also seized by the Ministry of Health, must in turn decide on this subject in the coming weeks.
Until then, the government's priority remains to accelerate the current campaign.
To date, three out of four residents aged 60 or over have received a first booster dose.