The return of the vaccine against Covid-19. On Friday, the French health authorities announced their new recommendations. They recommend revaccinating in the spring the people most at risk of serious Covid, then carrying out a broader campaign in the fall, without however extending it to the entire population.
The High Authority for Health (HAS) "recommends that people aged 80 and over, immunocompromised people and people at very high risk of the disease can benefit from an additional booster from the spring", she said. detailed in a press release. However, this new dose must wait at least six months after the last vaccination or the last infection to date.
The HAS, whose opinions are generally followed by the government, then recommends a campaign in the fall, this time targeted more broadly on all people at risk. This includes "people with certain comorbidities," such as diabetes or obesity, "regardless of age, people aged 65 and over, and pregnant women," the authority said, also including the entourage of these people.
These recommendations come at a time when a French study has just clarified the effectiveness of booster doses: these appear useful for strengthening protection against serious forms, but this effect lasts little over time. It is therefore important to choose the time of this booster vaccination carefully, even if this decision is made complex by the significant frequency of the waves of Covid, much less predictable than the annual return of the flu.
The HAS recommends, however, to couple a priori the anti-Covid fall campaign with that of vaccination against seasonal influenza. She stresses that the organization would thus be easier and the echo greater. But "we must not exclude the possibility of setting up a vaccination campaign at any time if the epidemiological situation justifies it, in particular for immunocompromised and / or vulnerable people", she warns. In the event of the emergence of a more dangerous or contagious variant, it would even be possible to extend this campaign to the entire population, according to the HAS.
