Vaccination against seasonal flu is “significantly behind” compared to last year, the two main pharmaceutical unions said on Monday, fearing a “particularly intense” epidemic this winter.
The trend is not favourable: as of November 18, 32 days after the launch of the flu vaccination campaign, just over 7 million doses had been distributed, compared to 8.6 million last year at the same time it was passed. .
That is 18.3% less, according to data collected in 14,000 of the 20,000 French pharmacies and published by the company IQVIA, a specialist in health data, on its “opendata platform”.
“A very important delay” for the Uspo pharmacists’ union, which “is sounding the alarm about the drop in vaccination coverage”, describing this drop as “particularly worrying” in a press release.
vaccine fatigue
“It’s a bit of a disaster this year,” confirms to AFP Philippe Besset, president of the FSPF, the first trade union for the profession. Especially since this decrease refers mainly to “priority” audiences (over 65, chronically ill, pregnant women), for whom the injection was reserved until November 15.
Pointing to a “general weariness towards vaccination, even among those for whom it is necessary”, Philippe Besset believes that it will be “very difficult” to catch up with this “lag” without a “meaningful communication campaign”.
But time is running out, because “indicators of the arrival of the flu have begun to light up in Brittany”, which entered the pre-epidemic phase at the beginning of November, stressed on Sunday the Minister of Health, François Braun. on RTL, calling the nascent epidemic “virulent”.
The Uspo, for its part, reports “greater flu activity” than in other years, suggesting “a premature and particularly intense epidemic” in mainland France.
However, François Braun assured that the health system will be able to “support the arrival of the flu if everyone does their part (and) if the most fragile people get vaccinated.”
Source: BFM TV
