Tomorrow starts the new vaccination campaign against Covid-19. If the new positive cases are increasingly numerous -40,021 new cases this week, an increase of 31% in seven days-, new vaccines arrive to strengthen our immunity.
These are three new vaccines, always with messenger RNA technology, which will be offered by Moderna and Pfizer (which manufactures two different ones). The goal of these new formulas: to adapt to the Omicron variant, which is more contagious than the original strain.
Therefore, these so-called “bivalent” vaccines are made with the initial strain of the virus combined with the Omicron strain.
In Moderna’s case, the bivalent vaccine specifically targets Omicron’s BA.1 sublineage (which circulated late last year). This is also the case for Pfizer’s first vaccine. But the laboratory also offers a vaccine with a specific Omicron strain for the BA.4 and BA.5 sublines. This last sublineage currently represents 91.4% of contaminations.
“According to the risks and the dominant strains, we will choose between these three vaccines,” says Robert Sebbag, an infectious disease specialist at the Pitié-Salpétrière hospital on the set of BFMTV this Sunday.
If these new doses continue to prevent serious forms of covid, the authorities also hope that they will now reduce the transmission of the virus. They will only be offered for a booster dose, such as a 3rd or 4th injection. “For the first vaccination, we keep the basic strain,” says the infectologist.
“There is no mass incitement”
This booster dose is mainly intended for the elderly and frailer people. For those over 60 who have not had their retirement for six months, and for those over 80, this period is reduced to three months. Immunosuppressed people, but also caregivers are concerned.
And for the rest of the adult population, “there is not a massive incentive, but there is a very strong recommendation for older people,” says Robbert Seggah.
“The government believes that at this stage of the epidemic it is not necessary to relaunch a large mass campaign for the entire population,” says Philippe Corbé, head of the BFMTV political department. However, the Minister of Health assured that “if you want to be vaccinated you can have a bivalent vaccine”.
The stocks are, at the moment, insufficient to vaccinate the entire population with these new doses, according to the head of the political service.
The first bottles have been delivered and are arriving until October 4 at pharmacies and doctors. According to a message recently sent by the Ministry of Health to professionals, 576,000 doses are available at the start of the campaign.
Source: BFM TV
