New doses of vaccine against Covid-19, but not for everyone. The French health authorities recommended this Friday, February 24 to revaccinate from the spring of 2023 the people most at risk of severe Covid, then to carry 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 detailing its vaccine strategy for this year. 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 at all people at risk. This includes “people with certain comorbidities”, such as diabetes or obesity, “regardless of their age, people aged 65 and over as well as pregnant women”, said the authority, also including the entourage of these people.
A vaccination campaign coupled with that of the flu in the fall?
These recommendations come at a time when a French study has just clarified the effectiveness of booster doses: these appear to be useful for reinforcing protection against serious forms, but this effect lasts little over time.
It is therefore important to choose the right time for this booster vaccination, even if this decision is made complex by the significant frequency of the waves of Covid-19, which are 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.
Wednesday, in his weekly epidemiological update, Public Health France noted that, “for the first time since 2021, the virological indicators for monitoring the Covid-19 epidemic show viral circulation fluctuating at low levels with almost exclusive circulation of the Omicron variant for a year”. Nevertheless, for the past few days, the incidence rate has been increasing in France.