3RD DOSE. People 65 and over who have had a full vaccination schedule for more than seven months must have their booster dose if they want to keep a valid health pass.
[Mis à jour le 15 décembre à 14h00] From this Wednesday, December 15, the health pass for people 65 and over becomes invalid if they have had a complete vaccination schedule for more than seven months and have not received their booster dose. From January 15, 2022, this measure will concern all French adults. This conditioning of the health pass to the 3rd dose should make it possible to speed up the vaccination and recall. And it seems to work: this Tuesday, December 14, the Minister of Solidarity and Health, Oliver Véran, was delighted on his Twitter account for a record day: “With nearly 900,000 injections including 820,000 recalls, France is having his strongest vaccination day in a year. “
In addition, is it possible to choose which serum to be vaccinated with? It depends: not all vaccination sites offer the same possibilities to choose your vaccine between Pfizer and Moderna. In early December, France had many more doses of Moderna (20 million) than Pfizer (6 million). In addition, you should know that a vial of Pfizer contains seven administrable doses, while those of Moderna contain between 20 and 24 doses. Widely used in vaccination centers, you are therefore more likely to be vaccinated with the product from the Moderna laboratory.
The Haute Autorité Sanitaire (HAS) specifies that whatever the vaccine initially injected, the booster dose must be given by the injection of a messenger RNA vaccine, therefore either the product developed by Pfizer or that of Moderna.
- For those under 30, they will need to have their booster dose injected with the Pfizer vaccine. “In the population under 30, the risk of myocarditis appears to be about 5 times lower for Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine compared to Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine in 12-29 year olds,” HAS said in a press release, published on 8 November.
- If you are over 30, you have a choice of the third injection against Covid-19 between Pfizer and Moderna. On the other hand, in terms of efficacy, the product developed by Moderna, “whose vaccine efficacy seems slightly better” is recommended for people over 30 years old for the booster dose, especially for people at risk of severe disease. .
Faced with the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in France, Jean Castex announced at a press conference on Monday, December 6, the opening of vaccination for children aged 5 to 11 at risk of develop severe forms. The vaccination campaign for this group of people will be open from this Wednesday, December 15.
The vaccination booster corresponds to the administration of an additional dose of vaccine as early as 5 months after the last dose of the initial vaccination schedule or after a proven Covid-19 infection if this has occurred after vaccination. In the event of infection occurring after the second dose, the third dose is still necessary: it must be carried out within a minimum of 5 months and up to 6 months and 4 weeks after infection.
This booster dose, often defined as a booster, is intended to maintain a high level of protection by stimulating the immune system once again. In fact, the immunity obtained by vaccination gradually decreases from the sixth month even if it remains effective against severe forms. Faced with the Delta variant, which is particularly contagious, the effectiveness of vaccines against the rate of transmission of the disease had already fallen by 40% according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The recent emergence of the Omicron variant (classified as of concern by the WHO) is also leading to a booster vaccination in all adults.
As when the vaccination campaign was in full swing at the start of the year, it is possible to get vaccinated in various places. Olivier Véran explained that “we are going to open, reopen or expand the existing vaccination centers”, counting around 11,000 throughout France, and recalled that doctors, pharmacies, midwives, nurses, physiotherapists or the biological laboratories are authorized to administer the vaccine.
Everything has been put in place by the executive to encourage vaccination and recall, in a context of a strong recovery in the circulation of Covid-19 and concern around the new variant. To this end, if you are one of the eligible audiences, you can make an appointment via online appointment booking platforms, such as Doctolib, Vitemadosis or KelDoc. You can also consult the lists of vaccination centers near you on Maiia and Santé.fr, or on your city’s website. Finally, you can contact 0 800 009 110 in order to reserve a vaccination slot – if you are abroad, you can contact the Embassy or consulate of your place of residence for this purpose.