France is prepping up their citizens for another Covid-19 vaccine this autumn.
On 17th August, the French media portal Franceinfo, published an article titled “Covid-19: three questions about the vaccine campaign planned for this fall.” The article cites the unelected body WHO, which since last May, has ‘invited’ ALL countries to “intensify efforts to increase vaccination coverage” for all vulnerable people. This was highlighted by the usual Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeus, in a press release (PDF), on Wednesday 9th August.
It adds that Covid-19 is making a combeack with the General Directorate of Health (DGS) publishing a circular on July 19 (PDF file, page 133) , giving details of the vaccination campaign coming this fall.
In France, “the fall vaccination campaign will begin on September 6 in Mayotte and on October 17 in France, Corsica, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.” This plan will apply “subject to the absence of an epidemic wave linked to Covid-19 before the fall” . Questioned by the specialized agency APMNews on August 11 during a press briefing, the DGS clarified that for the time being, the epidemic upsurge observed in recent weeks does not require the dates of this campaign to be brought forward.
The targeted cohort will be to vaccinate all those at risk, which means people with comorbidities (for example diabetes, obesity, chronic diseases) and the immunocompromised from the age of six months, pregnant women and people over 65 years old.
A recommendation extended “to people around them or in regular contact with them (including professionals in the health and medico-social sectors)”. The DGS specified “that people with psychiatric disorders, dementia or trisomy 21 are also concerned.”
However, although the French authorities stated that there is no particular interest to vaccinated the entire population, it still added that vaccination is free for all, including all those who do not meet the above criteria. This was recalled by a health insurance on 4th August as long as one respects a minimum period of six months after the last injection or infection, “regardless of the situation of the person” .
The French authorities will be coupling the vaccination campaign with that of the flu with the two vaccines being administered at the same time.
The two recommended vaccines will be “preferentially the use of bivalent mRNA vaccines adapted to Omicron , whatever the vaccine(s) administered previously” , like those developed by Pfizer Laboratories and, for those over 30, Moderna.
“These two pharmaceutical groups, as well as Novavax, are working in parallel on new molecules capable of targeting the XBB1.5 variant, a sub-variant similar to EG.5, also called Eris, and predominant in France. For the time being, they have not yet been authorized by the American and European health authorities. However, in an interview given to a podcast noted by the American agency Reuters , Mandy Cohen, director of the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said she hoped that they would be ‘distributed during the third or the fourth week of September‘ .”