France is enriched with a third vaccine against Covid-19.
Two days after the green light granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the High Authority for Health (HAS) on Tuesday approved the marketing of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca.
It is
not
currently
recommended for people over 65
, due to insufficient evidence of its effectiveness in this age group.
The HAS follows in this the reservations already expressed by the German and Italian health authorities.
As the
AstraZeneca
vaccine
is stored in conventional refrigerators unlike those of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, it can be administered by
pharmacists
.
The vaccine from the Swedish-British laboratory, already deployed in the United Kingdom, was eagerly awaited by European countries worried
about the delivery delays
announced.
After a showdown with the European Commission, AstraZeneca will finally deliver to the EU nine million doses more than expected of its vaccine against Covid.
Moderna
has also just announced delays in the delivery of its vaccine to Europe.
The American biotech is expected to reduce its deliveries planned for February by 25%.
For its part, Pfizer / BioNTech, which was the first to announce production slowdowns, intends to increase deliveries from the week of February 15.
Read also: Covid-19: vaccine deliveries reduced
At the other end of the chain, the
vaccination centers
in France are running out of vaccine doses.
Two regions, Hauts-de-France and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, have announced that they will suspend first injections from February 2 in order to give priority to people who should soon receive the second injection.
In Ile-de-France, the meetings were postponed by 15 days.
After 1.4 million vaccinations in January, the government plans only one million first-time injections this month.
This does not affect the government's projections.
Emmanuel Macron
assured on Tuesday evening that France will be able to offer a vaccine to "
all French adults who wish
", "
by the end of the summer
".
He also estimated that, "at the
beginning of March
", the 80% of nursing home residents who so wish, or 500,000 people, will have been vaccinated.
The head of state has not been opposed to the use of the
Russian vaccine
Sputnik V
which seems to be effective against the virus.
France will rely on the opinion of the European health authorities as soon as an authorization request has been submitted, which is not the case for the moment.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), on the other hand, expects to receive "
soon
" a request for authorization of the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson.
Read also: Two new vaccines with high efficacy against Covid-19
In this regularly updated article,
Le Figaro
offers you a full update on vaccines and the vaccination campaign in France:
Where is the vaccination campaign?
Who can get vaccinated and when?
Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca… What vaccines are available against Covid-19?
Messenger RNA, viral vector, attenuated virus ... What types of vaccine?
Why get vaccinated?
Should we fear side effects?
1. Where is the vaccination campaign?
Caregivers over 50 were able to get vaccinated, here in a gymnasium in Taverny in Ile-de-France.
BENOIT TESSIER / REUTERS
In France.
The government, which targeted one million people vaccinated at the end of January, has far exceeded its target.
On February 1, 2021, 1,541,079 people
among the priority audiences received a first dose of vaccine in France according to the VaccinTracker site.
67,993 people have received the two necessary injections and are therefore vaccinated.
The government predicts that by the end of February 2.5 million people will have received a first dose.
By the end of August, according to the Minister of Health, 70 million people will be vaccinated.
France, which was far behind its European neighbors in terms of the number of vaccinations compared to the population, is catching up even if it remains in the back of the pack.
According to the Minister for Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, the vaccination campaign will cost the State at least 4.3 billion euros.
To read also: Covid-19: where is the vaccination in your department?
France in the ranking of the least developed countries in the vaccination against Covid-19.
Le Figaro
In the world
.
Compared to the size of the population,
it is Israel that leads the vaccination race by far
ahead of the United Arab Emirates, the Seychelles and the United Kingdom.
In general, with a few exceptions such as Israel, the percentage of the population vaccinated remains very low all over the world.
Israel dominates the ranking of countries most advanced in vaccination against Covid-19.
Le Figaro
2. Who can get vaccinated and when?
The vaccination campaign will follow a three-phase schedule.
BENOIT TESSIER / REUTERS
How's it going?
Vaccination against Covid-19 is done in two stages: a first intramuscular injection in the arm, followed by a second after a period of three to four weeks.
•
Until the end of January
, France is in the
first phase of the vaccination campaign
.
After the residents of nursing homes vaccinated as a priority, the staff of establishments welcoming the elderly, caregivers and firefighters over 50 years or frail can benefit from the vaccine.
Since
January 18,
people over the age of 75 but also people "
with pathologies leading to a very high risk of severe form of the disease
" (severe chronic renal failure, people with organ transplants, with Down's syndrome). 21, advanced cancers ....), regardless of their age, have the possibility to be vaccinated by appointment in one
of the vaccination centers
open throughout the country.
This potentially affects 6.4 million people.
Registration
is done via the national number
0800 009 110
or by directly calling a vaccination center referenced on sante.fr.
Or by using online medical appointment
booking
platforms -
Doctolib
,
Maiia
and
Keldoc
.
More details in our article:
Read also: Covid-19: how to make an appointment to be vaccinated?
•
In February, the
second phase
of the vaccination campaign (14 million people) will target French people aged over 65 to 74 living at home.
• Finally
in the third quarter of 2021
, the
third phase
extends vaccination firstly to people over 50, then to professionals in sectors essential to the functioning of the country, to vulnerable and precarious people and finally to the rest of the adult population.
The
children and adolescents
are therefore not affected by the vaccination Covid-19.
Should you be vaccinated if you have already had the Covid?
According to the Haute Autorité de santé, there is no need to systematically vaccinate people who have already developed a symptomatic form of Covid-19.
They can however benefit from it with the agreement of their doctor and after a minimum period of 3 months from the onset of symptoms.
3. Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca… What vaccines are available against Covid-19?
AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored in a regular refrigerator.
JOE GIDDENS / AFP
WHO has currently identified 63 candidate vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in clinical trials in humans around the world.
Of these, 15 have already reached phase 3, where the efficacy of the vaccine is being measured on a large scale.
In Europe, three
vaccines
have so far been authorized by the European Commission after a favorable opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
That of the German-American
Pfizer / BioNTech
on December 21, that of the American
Moderna
on January 6.
A third vaccine, that of the Swedish-British
Astra-Zeneca / Oxford
was approved on January 29 by the EMA.
They immediately obtained marketing authorization from the French National Authority for Health.
Another vaccine is currently being evaluated by the EMA: the American
Johnson & Johnson / Janssen
.
The German vaccine CureVac has not yet been submitted to the EMA and the only French vaccine, developed by Sanofi and GSK, would not be available until the last quarter of 2021.
In total,
the European Union has concluded seven contracts
with Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, CureVac and most recently Valneva,
for a total of 2.5 billion doses
.
And an eighth agreement (with Novavax) is on track.
Enough to vaccinate the entire European population.
Read also: Vaccine race: which are the most advanced laboratories?
France has 15% of European vaccine pre-orders, or ultimately
more than 200 million doses
according to the Ministry of Health.
So far, France has more than 2.5 million doses of the anti-Covid vaccine.
Read also: Covid-19: can we choose our vaccine?
4. Messenger RNA, viral vector, attenuated virus ... What types of vaccine?
The vaccines developed against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus use different techniques.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines:
These are those from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and CureVac.
For the first two already marketed, the announced efficiency rate is 95 and 94%.
This very recent technology uses fragments of RNA from the virus which, once in the body's cells, will make them manufacture viral proteins which will trigger the immune reaction.
This RNA is then quickly eliminated by the body and never enters the nucleus of the cell and has no effect on the genome, specifies the Ministry of Health.
Disadvantage?
They can only be stored long term at very low temperature (-70 ° Celsius for the first, -20 ° C for the second).
Read also: Covid: Can RNA Vaccines Modify Our DNA?
The
"
inactivated vaccines
"
and
"
live attenuated vaccines
": This is the most common method already used for influenza, rubella or measles and developed against the 19-Covid by Chinese Sinovac and Sinopharm.
These vaccines are based on an injection of the whole virus previously rendered harmless in order to trigger an immune response in the event of infection.
Vaccines with a
“
non-replicating viral vector
”
:
These are those of AstraZeneca and Janssen.
A harmless virus is used to carry the genetic material of the coronavirus, making the protein that will trigger an immune response.
While doubts remain about the effectiveness of AstraZeneca's vaccine already deployed in the United Kingdom, it has the advantage of being stored at a refrigerator temperature, between two and eight degrees Celsius.
Read also: Covid-19: unanswered questions about the effectiveness of AstraZeneca's vaccine formula
The vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur with the English GSK is based on the
recombinant protein
method
.
We do not present the whole virus, but fragments of its envelope or its envelope emptied of the virus.
Vaccines against hepatitis B or papillomavirus are made using this method.
Read also: Price, conservation, efficacy ... The article to know everything about the different vaccines
5. Why get vaccinated?
Vaccination against Covid-19, which is
free
in France, is
not compulsory
.
The goal of the campaign determined by the Ministry of Health is
to reduce the number of severe forms of COVID-19
.
The second more uncertain goal is to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus from person to person.
However, if the vaccine protects against a "
deep
"
infection
, the virus can eventually be transmitted, without causing any symptoms other than a mild cold.
Contagiousness will therefore be lower but not eliminated.
Respect for barrier gestures therefore remains essential pending collective immunity which would not be attainable in 2021 according to the WHO.
For the moment, the government has ruled out the principle of a “vaccination passport” which would allow vaccinated people to access certain services or places.
Read also: Covid-19: why vaccines definitely limit contagiousness
According to an Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey for
Le Figaro
and Franceinfo, a majority of French people (56%) now want to be protected against Covid-19.
They were 42% before Christmas and the start of the vaccination campaign.
6. Should we fear side effects?
The side effects associated with the anti-Covid vaccines authorized in France
are mainly mild to moderate
: pain at the point of entry of the injection, chills, fevers or headaches.
However, rare cases of serious allergic reactions
have been reported during clinical trials and the first few weeks of vaccination.
Only
one in 100,000 people get
the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine according to US health officials.
If the
benefit / risk ratio is not called into question
for the general population, the High Authority for Health has therefore decided not to recommend vaccination "
to people who have presented serious allergic manifestations such as anaphylactic reactions
".
The vaccine is of course contraindicated in the event of hypersensitivity to the active substance or to one of its excipients.
The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health
Products (ANSM) has set up a specific reinforced monitoring system for the adverse effects of anti-Covid-19 vaccines on French territory.
On signalement-sante.gouv.fr, health professionals and users can report any adverse effects following vaccination.
According to its latest update on January 22, just over 140 cases of adverse effects have been identified with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
Most effects are expected or not serious such as fever, headache and nausea.
31 cases of serious adverse effects were analyzed, including 4 cases of tachycardia episodes which require additional investigations.
For the 9 cases of death reported, concerning elderly people residing in EHPAD or in old age residences, the ANSM specifies that “
in view of the elements available to us to date, nothing allows us to conclude that these deaths are linked to vaccination.
"Finally,"
no case of adverse effect with the Moderna vaccine has been declared,
"the agency reports.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on January 29 that the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is unrelated to the reported post-vaccination deaths.
SEE ALSO -
What are the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines?
Read also: Vaccines: few serious side effects
