Posted Oct 3, 2022 10:48 AM
The latest vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are arriving in France. Adapted to the Omicron variant, they should make it possible to cross the eighth wave which is currently raging in France. They will be administered from Monday as part of a new vaccination campaign.
Public concerned, time required since the previous dose, conditions to be respected… here is what you need to know about this fall vaccination campaign.
· Who is concerned ?
In an opinion, issued on September 20, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends the administration of a booster dose for vulnerable people and their entourage. People over the age of 60 are thus concerned. People with comorbidities, pregnant women, and high-risk children and adolescents are also among the target audiences.
The HAS also recommends combining this vaccination with that against influenza. The campaign will start on October 18.
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The entourage of these people is also invited to be vaccinated. Just like “people who are in regular contact with them”, namely “professionals in the health and medico-social sector”. All these people are actually eligible for the administration of a new injection since the beginning of the summer, generally a second booster dose. What changes are the vaccines administered.
The general population is not targeted by this campaign, but the vaccine will still be accessible to it, specified, on September 27, the Minister of Health, François Braun.
· With which vaccines?
Three variant-matched vaccines are coming to market. Two of them were developed by Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty brand), the third by Moderna (Spikevax brand). All three are messenger RNA (mRNA). They are called “bivalent” because they contain two strains (the original Covid strain and the Omicron variant). Moderna’s vaccine and one of two Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines contain the original strain of the virus and Omicron’s BA.1 variant.
The second vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech targets the original strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron. It should be available in France from Thursday, October 6, according to “Le Parisien”. The Moderna version targeting these sub-variants exists. However, it is not yet authorized in Europe.
In France, BA.5 is ubiquitous. It represented 91% of the sequences in the last weekly update published by Public Health France. The High Health Authority recommends “indifferently one of the three bivalent vaccines”, regardless of the anti-Covid vaccine initially administered to the person. However, these vaccines can only be administered as a booster dose, and not for a first vaccination. They will be available in pharmacies and vaccination centers.
· Under what conditions?
Several conditions are required to receive these vaccines. First of all, people aged at least 80, residents of nursing homes and immunocompromised people must have received their last injection at least three months ago. For the others, a period of six months is to be respected.
It is not necessary, moreover, to have contracted the Covid less than three months ago. The High Authority for Health also recommends that people under 30 give preference to Pfizer vaccines.
