Vaccination against covid: new campaign postponed to October 2

Accelerating the Covid-19 vaccination campaign this autumn. The launch date has finally been pushed back to October 2, rather than October 17 as originally planned, the health ministry told AFP on Friday evening. This is in line with the Committee for Monitoring and Forecasting Health Risks (Covars) recommendation it received a few days earlier.

In its conclusion, submitted to the government this Friday and expected to be made public soon, the scientific body calls for the launch “as soon as possible,” according to several corroborating sources. Practical details are to be announced to health professionals in a special document this Friday evening.

This decision was taken to “strengthen” as quickly as possible the protection of vulnerable people (over 65 years of age, young people with underlying health conditions, pregnant women, etc.) called upon to once again lend a helping hand, even if this means disassociating the Covid vaccination . and influenza vaccination. SARS-CoV-2 has been actively circulating in recent weeks, and all available indicators (emergency department visits, SOS doctor consultations, etc.) are still rising sharply.

New vaccines expected

“This summer, too, not everyone was infected, and it seems necessary to revaccinate these people at risk as soon as possible,” says infectious disease specialist Odile Launay. Like other doctors and scientists, she has been openly calling for weeks to speed up the timetable, in part because of the risk of new variants emerging in the coming weeks.

However, one condition remains: new vaccines are available. Targeting the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant, they should be more effective against current strains than those available throughout the year that target Omicron BA.4/5. Pharmaceutical groups Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have received approval in Europe and are promised to deliver to France by October. The Ministry of Health assures that supplies will appear in France from the beginning of the month.

Another vaccine targeting XBB.1.5, a vaccine from pharmaceutical firm Novavax, may soon be authorized. Its peculiarity is that it is not based on messenger RNA, but on recombinant protein, a more common method.