Immunologist Brigitte Autran, a HIV specialist, directs the monitoring and anticipation committee of health risks, formed to replace the scientific council. In an interview with the “world”, it recalls the need for vaccination to deal with the expected epidemic recovery in the fall.
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On August 17, immunologist Brigitte Autran, HIV specialist, former practitioner at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and emeritus professor at Sorbonne-Université, was appointed head of the new standby committee and Anticipation of health risks, responsible for replacing the scientific council and the guidance council for the vaccination strategy. In an interview with the “world”, she details her missions and traces the perspectives of the coming months.
in France, 50 people still die every day from COVID-19 to the hospital. The epidemic has become commonplace, while worldwide, the million dead for the year 2022 alone was crossed the week of August 22. In total, the pandemic killed nearly 6.5 million people officially – probably three times more. How do you see the situation in the coming weeks?
Experts are all convinced that there will be a recovery in the fall, perhaps when the temperatures fall. For the moment, as in most countries, we are in the hollow of the wave. It is hard to believe that a new wave will fall on us next week. But you have to stay very vigilant. For the past few days, the decline in the circulation of the virus has slowed down.
faced with this expected resurgence, what are your priorities?
Vaccination remains a pillar of the fight against this pandemic. The recall [fourth injection in most cases] today concerns all people over 60 years old, pregnant women, those under 60 at risk of serious forms [immunocompromised people or with comorbidities such as cancers or chronic kidney diseases] and the entourage of fragile people. I really insist that this fourth injection is done as quickly as possible. This recall is recommended from six months after the last dose, or from three months for the 80th and over, residents in nursing homes and long -term care units as well as immunocompromised people. The repetition of vaccination every three to six months has no deleterious effect. In addition, effective treatments are available for fragile people and must be used.
What do you expect from the upcoming arrival of new “bivalents” vaccines, which target both the historic strain of Virus (the one that raged at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China) and the Omicron variant (in its first version, BA.1)?
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