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Virtually everything has been said about Covid vaccines. While the American laboratory Pfizer talks about an efficiency of 90%, and the European Medicines Agency expects the first distributions in January 2021, Midi Libre takes stock of the vaccine race.
After thunderous announcements this week about the progress of various vaccine projects, many questions remain. Overview.
1 – What vaccine is it?
“We can’t put all of our eggs in one basket,” World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Ghebreyesus recalled Thursday, referring to the search for a coronavirus vaccine.
There should be a choice, with ten vaccines today in phase 3, the last step before possible approval, and on November 3, WHO identified 47 candidate vaccines using different techniques. Messenger RNA for Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, attenuated (such as measles) or inactivated (influenza, polio) viruses for most of the others.
Whether the Pfizer vaccine has gained an advantage, unsure whether it is the first to be validated, many unknowns remain. The Anglo-Swedes Astra-Zeneca and the American Johnson & Johnson had to suspend their trials for a while due to “serious incidents” and this is still the case in the Chinese Sinovac trial.
Last July, the authoritative scientific publication Lancet cited his three favorites: AtraZeneca, CanSino and Pfizer. “The Russians and the Chinese are ahead,” said infectious disease specialist Jacques Reynes in Montpellier. “The first vaccines on the market will be Chinese,” predicts geneticist Axel Kahn.
The first vaccines on the market will be Chinese
The only certainty is that the first vaccine on the market won’t be the only one for long. “This is not a race against each other, it is a race against a virus. One company could not meet the demand,” explained Bruno Donini, head of business at Sanofi Pasteur, in Futurapolis Montpellier, a month ago.
This is not a race against each other, it is a race against a virus. One company failed to meet demand
2 – At what price?
“Well below the market price,” promises BioNTech. It would be $ 50 to $ 60 (about € 50) for the two doses of the vaccine, $ 3 to $ 4 (about € 3) for the AstraZeneca vaccine, $ 10 (about € 8) for the Sanofi / GSK vaccine. .
Bruno Donini, of Sanofi, points out that the investment is heavy: one billion dollars. “The price is set based on efficiency, security, investment. It also has to be fair and accessible to all, because there is no point in targeting a pandemic only on rich countries,” he said.
The price is set based on efficiency, safety and investment. It also needs to be fair and accessible to all, because targeting a pandemic only against rich countries makes no sense.
3 – When will they be available?
Guido Rasi, director of the European Medicines Agency, told the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on Saturday that the agency should give a favorable opinion on a vaccine “by the end of the year”, for distribution “from January”. He estimates that “six or seven different vaccines” should be available in 2021 and that it will take “at least a year to vaccinate all of them”.
4 – Who will be vaccinated first?
Priority will be given to people at risk of severe forms, therefore to the elderly (from 60 to 65 years?) And to people suffering from obesity or who have comorbidities. Other target audience: caregivers and nursing home staff. The latest official document on the subject is a note from the Haute Autorité de Santé dated 23 July.
The choices will still be decisive: “We must avoid reliving the situation of 2009, vaccination against the H1N1 virus was a fiasco. We are organizing ourselves to be able to say, at the end of December, early January, with whom to vaccinate with which vaccine”, he explained- Élisabeth Bouvet, president of the technical committee on vaccinations (CTV) of the Haute Autorité de Santé, in Futurapolis, Montpellier, is already a month ago.
We must avoid reliving the situation of 2009, the vaccination against the H1N1 virus had been a fiasco. We are organizing to be able to say, at the end of December, beginning of January, who to vaccinate with which vaccine
This week, the CHUs were to provide information on the organization of the vaccine industry. “Vaccination in the first quarter of 2021, perhaps. But it will be very supervised”, points out Jacques Reynes, who does not envision “extended vaccinations” in the immediate future.
4 – Will the French play together?
Will the French be vaccinated when possible? They remain suspicious. A November 11 Odoxa poll reminds us that one in two French people don’t want it. A distrust fueled in part by a conspiratorial current on social media and now by the pseudo-documentary film, Hold-up.
“The acceptability of vaccination is evolving”, Élisabeth Bouvet nuance who believes that “the more information on the safety of vaccines, the better the acceptability will be. We must be transparent and involve users”. The craze for the flu shot, temporarily sold out when it was released last month, shows the French remain unpredictable.
The more information about the safety of vaccines, the better the acceptability. We need to be transparent and engage users
5 – Could the vaccine be mandatory?
There is debate, the decision will be political, it is unlikely.
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