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What will the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 be like? The French will be set tonight: Jean Castex, the prime minister, and Olivier Véran, the health minister, present the details of the vaccine strategy this Thursday.
Organized vaccination
First of all, it will be gradual. For a simple reason: the doses of vaccines will arrive in droplets on French territory. If the state has pre-ordered approximately 100 million doses from seven potential suppliers via the European Union, these will not be immediately available. They will arrive according to the industrial capabilities of the laboratories, from their marketing authorization. On the European side, the latter is expected to take place by 29 December for Pfizer (which has already gotten the British go-ahead on Wednesday) and 12 January for Moderna, the two vaccines (both with the new RNA messenger technique) that are driving the race.
In this context of limited resources, vaccination will mainly target the groups most vulnerable to the disease. With one goal: to protect the most vulnerable to serious forms of disease, to limit the number of hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid-19.
Avoid the third wave
The first phase of vaccination – which is expected to start in early 2021 – aims to avoid the impact of a third wave on the health system. It is not intended to provide collective immunity.
For this, it would take sufficient doses to vaccinate in bulk. And the certainty that vaccines prevent the transmission of the disease. At present, vaccines are effective in preventing a severe form of the disease. But there is still an unknown factor about their reduction of contagiousness.
A strategy on several vaccines
A wider vaccination, for the entire population, will not happen until May-June, according to Emmanuel Macron. It will be based on several vaccines. The first available (Pfizer, Moderna and probably Astra Zeneca) will be the first in a long series. Public authorities will refine their strategy based on data on different products.
If the laboratories that today presented the practices to the health authorities present highly effective vaccines against the disease, doubts remain: on their effects based on age and risk factors for example, but also on the duration of immunity and on efficacy on virus transmission. It’s too early to tell if one vaccine works better than another, so we need to leave the door open to multiple choice.
The arrival, throughout the year 2021, of new vaccines that use techniques other than messenger RNA will have other advantages: they will potentially be cheaper to purchase and can be stored in simpler conditions.
A logistic puzzle
This innovative technology in fact provides for the storage of vaccines at – 80 ° C (for Pfizer’s) and – 20 ° C (for Moderna’s). This led to the state ordering 50 super freezers. Ministers are expected to specify this Thursday how doses will be transported and stored before being administered to patients.
Who will vaccinate? Olivier Véran, Minister of Health, should also clarify this essential point for the implementation of the campaign. Nursing home and occupational medicine doctors will be authorized to do so. Liberal doctors are also on the bridge. The Council of the Order of Doctors reiterated this Wednesday, recalling the trust that the French place in their doctor. It is also the stakes of the complex government exercise: convincing the population, while the mistrust of the institutions is maximum.
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