"
In one day, all the appointments for the week are gone
", "
No more slots are available
", "
You have to try again later
". The day after Emmanuel Macron's announcement to open vaccination to people over 50 from May 10 and to all, on the remaining doses, from May 12, most vaccination centers are full for at least one week. In a few hours, the French rushed to hope to obtain a precious dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, before only reserved for people at risk. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson serums remain reserved for people over 55 years of age due to the risk of thrombosis after injection.
A few days before the second stage of deconfinement, allowing terraces, shops and places of culture to reopen, the executive wants
"to continue [its vaccination campaign] at a forced march".
Nearly 17 million French people have received a first dose, or more than a quarter of the population.
But we still need to accelerate the pace to achieve the objectives of the government and collective immunity and thus "
drop the mask by the summer
", according to Alain Fischer, head of the vaccine strategy in France.
Objective: 20 million on May 15
Emmanuel Macron had given the tempo, 10 million first-time vaccinated in mid-April, 20 million in mid-May and 30 million on June 15, two weeks before the lifting of the curfew and the main restrictions. Can opening up the eligible public make it possible to achieve these objectives? "
Probably not
", replied the Doctolib team, during a press conference on May 6. To stick to it, we would need to vaccinate 600,000 people per day. However, the rate is more between 450,000 and 500,000 or even 526,000 on the most effective days.
"
It's not the lack of slots that slows us down,
responds the Doctolib team,
it's the lack of doses
".
France uses almost all of the doses received, Pfizer being in the lead with 94% of injections used, AstraZeneca still suffers from its lack of popularity and only 74% of the doses are injected.
An increased administration rate since February due to better management of vaccine stocks.
Rate of use of doses received.
Doctolib
It is to avoid these "
unacceptable
"
losses
that the President of the Republic has opened vaccination to all, without age limit, depending on the remaining doses.
“
But this only concerns a few thousand niches
, nuances the Doctolib team.
And around fifty major centers ”
.
For the digital platform in charge of organizing appointments, France "
wastes very few doses
".
Read also: Vitemadose, Chronodose, Covidliste ... What are the differences between these sites for accessing the vaccine
To vaccinate more, you need more vaccines.
Five million new doses should arrive in the coming days, half of which come from Pfizer and Moderna laboratories.
Good news for European orders which, after experiencing delays with AstraZeneca, are suffering from supply concerns with the German CureVac, the validity of which is still being studied by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The teams on site are ready to open more slots, especially weekends and holidays, provided they receive more doses.
To read also: Vaccination: will France keep its objectives?
Vaccinate more on weekends
"
We already work full-time weekends
," notes the Paris vaccination center located in the Disneyland amusement park in Paris. But this is not the case for all centers, only the largest remain open. “
For example, on public holidays next week, May 8 or Ascension Thursday, less than 200,000 appointments have been booked,”
explains the Doctolib team.
We must speed up vaccination on weekends and holidays
”.
Consequently, local initiatives are multiplying. In Saint-Brieuc in the Côtes-d'Armor, teams from the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS) will perform several hundred injections this Sunday, May 9. An operation also renewed in Lyon within the Groupama Stadium with a "
punch operation
" allowing 14,000 people to be vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna in four days (from Thursday to Sunday 9 May).
Finally, if the messenger RNA slots are very quickly reserved, the AstraZeneca are still shunned by the French. A situation that must change, for Alain Fischer, who asks people over 55 to receive a dose of the Swedish-British vaccine at the risk of "
delaying the vaccine campaign
" and "
leaving people to die
", he explains. in
Le Parisien
. An opinion shared by Gilles Bonnefond, president of the Union of trade unions of dispensing pharmacists. The pharmacist even calls on the health authorities to lower its age limit for use and thus allow those who want to be vaccinated to be able to do so.
