For the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Board, a second reminder would bring “no significant individual profit” and induce a “risk of disengagement” of the population.
By
This is a cautious and temporary position, which “will be able to evolve (…) according to the publication of new scientific data”. It does not preclude: In the opinion given, on 19 January, the Minister of Health, the Vaccine Strategy Guideline (COSV) considers that the available data do not currently call for the establishment of A second vaccinal reminder [a reminder of the third dose]. The question, which had been submitted to the COSV by the executive, is certainly “legitimate by the current context of high viral traffic”, insist the experts, more particularly “the emergence of the Omicron variant, against which the vaccination seems to lose partially. its effectiveness “.
However, “with the exception of severely immunocompromised people, for whom the COSV has already recommended the systematic injection of a second vaccinal reminder dose”, they dismiss the use of this fourth dose To protect seniors or comorbidities, who received their reminder in September or October.
This population is, indeed, the heart of the debate. Especially at risk of developing serious forms, it was the first to benefit from vaccination: from January 2021 for the first dose, followed quickly from the second; In September for the reminder. But this privilege has turned into disability. At the arrival of Omicron at the end of December, they were already undergoing the gradual weakening of the quantity of antibodies, detectable from the tenth week, according to different investigations that the COSV recalls in its opinion. This led countries like Israel, Chile, Hungary, Denmark or Spain to open the door to this additional injection.
“No significant individual profit”
Some might wonder about the congestion of vaccination centers. The board sweeps the argument. A second recall dose for all persons who received the first four months ago would concern 1.2 million people in January and 1.9 million in February, says the notice. A population, finally, limited. Even by bringing back this period to three months, which would impose a vaccination 3.1 million people in January and 4.2 million in February (those who received their first recall in November), “the establishment of a second dose Reminder would not in the immediate be a feasibility problem, “says COSV.
The advisory body, set up on the occasion of this pandemic, supports its negative opinion on any other considerations. In the first place, it notes that the decrease in infection protection ten weeks after the vaccinal recall is not accompanied by a similar decline against serious forms. “For the moment, no information element consisting of only suggests protection against serious forms conferred by a vaccinal recall decreases in time,” she insists.
You have 46.25% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.