Starting this Tuesday, October 14, millions of French people will be able to get vaccinated for free against flu and Covid-19, with the ambition of improving the rate of vaccination after a particularly serious flu epidemic last winter.
The main objective of the annual flu vaccination campaign is “to protect the most vulnerable populations,” recall the French health authorities. They strongly encourage people to take advantage of the same opportunity to receive both vaccines (flu and Covid-19) that can be administered by many caregivers.
• Who can get vaccinated?
Almost 19 million people are affected in mainland France. The eligible people are the following, according to the Health Insurance:
- People aged 65 and over
- People under 65 years of age, including children up to 6 months of age, with certain chronic illnesses
- pregnant women
- People suffering from obesity.
- People staying in a follow-up care facility or a medical-social accommodation facility, regardless of their age.
It is also recommended for the vast majority of caregivers, people close to immunocompromised people, personnel in the travel sector (cruises and airplanes, for example)…
All these people will be able to get vaccinated against the flu for free. The flu vaccine is also offered to children ages 2 to 17 without chronic illnesses and is 65% covered by Health Insurance.
Regarding Covid, the vaccine remains reimbursable for all people aged 5 and older, even beyond the populations targeted by the vaccination campaign.
• How can you get vaccinated?
People affected by the vaccination recommendations should receive a care voucher between September and October. If this bonus has not been received, it can be requested from doctors, nurses, pharmacists or midwives. To benefit from the vaccination you must present this voucher as well as your health card.
Many healthcare providers are authorized to administer these vaccines, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and midwives. According to Health Insurance, it is possible to receive the flu vaccine and the Covid-19 vaccine on the same day.
But “in general, at the time of vaccination, if you suffer from an acute illness with fever, it is necessary to postpone all vaccines,” he says.
• Are these viruses currently circulating?
Vaccination will begin before the flu epidemic has begun. In a first assessment carried out on Wednesday, French Public Health reported only a few “sporadic” cases in France, apart from Réunion which, in the southern hemisphere, is already emerging from an epidemic.
The tremors are more on the Covid side. In recent weeks, the disease has shown signs of recovery, with an increase in consultations and greater detection of the virus in wastewater.
However, these two indicators are stabilizing, according to French Public Health, which, although calling for vigilance, does not consider that the disease is more present than at the same time last year. Despite a small increase in hospitalizations among older people, Covid has not yet affected the health system. Therefore, health authorities remained faithful to their policy of combining flu and Covid vaccinations, without advancing the latter.
“We had no arguments at an epidemiological level to modify this launch date of October 14,” Didier Lepelletier, director general of Health, told the press this week. It calls not to worry about the appearance this summer of a variant, called XFG, the new avatar of the great Omicron family. Sometimes nicknamed “Frankenstein,” especially on social media, it seems potentially more contagious but no more dangerous at this stage.
Still produced by Pfizer, “the available vaccine is effective against this strain,” declared Didier Lepelletier.
• Avoid an epidemic as serious as last year’s
The challenge, in addition to respecting barrier gestures such as hand washing and ventilation, is to improve vaccination coverage against these two diseases. Since the end of the health crisis in the early 2020s, the French vaccinate less. Last year, less than half did so for the flu and the rate was even lower for Covid.
This situation contributed to a particularly serious flu epidemic last season. It has caused more than 17,000 deaths, according to the French Public Health agency, compared to an annual average of about 10,000. More generally, the 2024-2025 flu caused almost three million consultations and 30,000 hospitalizations, including an unusually high proportion of children, especially under five years of age.
“The peak observed in the first week of 2025 in hospitals” due to the flu “had almost never been reached,” Caroline Semaille, director general of Public Health of France, told the press. The French “vaccinated too late,” he lamented. This season’s campaign is scheduled to end on January 31, 2026.
Source: BFM TV
