Faced with a fear of a lack of vaccines and the worsening of the health crisis, the High Authority for Health is changing its vaccination strategy.
In an opinion published on Saturday 23 January, the HAS recommends “
to extend to 6 weeks the time between 2 doses of messenger RNA vaccine (vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna).
Initially, the expected timeframe ranged from 21 to 28 days.
The 42-day window would not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Read also: Vaccines: few serious side effects
The HAS also specifies that the available doses must be reserved
"as a priority"
for people aged 75 and over, then for 65-74 years,
"starting with those with comorbidities"
.
“
In a context of gradual supply of vaccine doses over the course of 2021, the HAS looked into the possibility of postponing the second dose of mRNA vaccine, in order to allow the first dose to benefit from a larger number of vulnerable people, before the epidemic situation deteriorates further.
"
700,000 more people
“
Whatever the hypothesis adopted on the vaccination rate, these models show that this lengthening makes it possible to vaccinate the populations most at risk more quickly.
Thus, in the first month of implementation of this measure, at least 700,000 additional people would be protected by the vaccine.
Other models carried out at the international level, particularly American and Canadian, corroborate these results.
"
Until now, for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the government followed the advice of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM).
But, already on January 7, the Agency was considering spacing out the two injections "
in view of the current specific circumstances, in order to expand the vaccination coverage of priority people and to cope with supply fluctuations.
"
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