There is "
no reason for the moment
" to offer a 3rd dose of vaccine against Covid-19 to the entire population, "
apart from the most vulnerable and the oldest
", for lack of "
available data
" , said the High Authority for Health (HAS) on Friday.
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"
While it seems very likely that a booster injection will actually provide a boost effect (...), the data available to date do not allow a precise assessment of the impact or the need for such a booster on the prevention of vaccine failures
", argues the health authority, after the announcement Monday by Emmanuel Macron of a"
recall campaign
"at the start of the school year for the first vaccinated populations.
"No argument" for the third dose
The HAS “
therefore considers that there is no argument to recommend the administration of a booster dose beyond the people already targeted by government decisions, regardless of the initial vaccines
”.
“
The priority for the next few weeks is to do everything possible to increase vaccination coverage, in particular among people over 80 years of age for whom vaccination coverage is still insufficient (75%) despite their great vulnerability to disease,
”she added in a statement.
The President of the Republic relied on an opinion of the Scientific Council, published on July 9, which recommends "
anticipating now a booster vaccination in people over 80 years living in nursing homes or at home
".
At the international level, no health authority has yet pronounced in this direction.
A third dose if protection wears off
For its part, the HAS does not exclude "
the relevance
" of such a reminder for the entire population, "
if a decrease in protection against Covid-19 over time was demonstrated on the basis of 'vaccine failures observed in real life (and not only on the basis of a drop in the level of antibodies) or if a new variant + resistant + to currently available vaccines emerged in the territory
”.
But to be able to determine this, she stresses the need to monitor “
infections in fully vaccinated people
” and to initiate studies on the efficacy and safety of an additional injection.
Finally, in a second opinion also published on Friday, the health authority considers "
justified
" the obligation of the vaccine against Covid-19 "
for professionals in contact with vulnerable people
", as announced by the President of the Republic and as provided for in the bill which will be presented to the Council of Ministers on Monday.
An obligation for the vulnerable?
The HAS even judges "
that the extension of the vaccination obligation could be considered (...) for vulnerable people as soon as the vaccination coverage does not progress
" and that the question of an obligation for "
all the professionals in contact with the public and beyond in the general population also deserves to be asked
”.
At this point, more than half of the French population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and more than four in ten people have received a full vaccination schedule.
The announcement Monday evening of the vaccination obligation for certain professions and of an extension of the health pass to cultural events from Wednesday and then to many other places (restaurants, large shopping centers ...) in early August led to an influx to the vaccine with "
nearly three million
" appointments in three days, according to Emmanuel Macron.
