SARS-CoV-2 is no longer on the front page of the media, the vaccination pass has been repealed… In this context, is there still an interest in encouraging the unvaccinated to be vaccinated? The answer is yes and here is why.
As of April 8, 2022, more than 53 million people have a complete vaccination schedule in France. Since this week, it is even possible to receive a second booster dose from the age of 60, six months after the first booster dose. While pandemic has been almost absent from the media in recent weeks, is it really necessary to give another injection? Moreover, since the withdrawal of the vaccination pass, do people who have not received any injections have an interest in being vaccinated? To answer this question, we must distinguish individual benefits from collective benefits.
The virus is actively circulating and remains dangerous for fragile people
We talk less about it but the virus is still there. According to epidemiological point of Public Health France of April 8, 2022, “ the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 remains at a very high level throughout the territory “. Further on, we can read that ” new hospital and critical care admissions are on the rise “.
On the other hand, the Omicron variant is less dangerous than its Delta predecessor. This is why our hospitals have been able to absorb waves of contamination very important, up to 500,000 cases per day! Although the strain currently in circulation is less virulent, it is nonetheless dangerous for people at risk of developing a serious form: the elderly, Down’s syndrome, transplant patients, kidney failure… Individually, for their own benefit , these people should absolutely be vaccinated and up to date with their reminders. What about people in whom the infection is likely to be asymptomatic?
The circulation of the virus promotes the emergence of new variants
L’emergence new variants takes place during errors in copying the genome of the virus. The more the virus circulates, the more it has the possibility of giving rise to a new variant. To limit the circulation of the virus, there are two solutions: barrier gestures and the vaccination massive population.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the variants follow one another. When a new variant takes precedence over the others, it is necessarily because it is more contagious. On the other hand, we cannot predict whether it will be more dangerous as Delta was after Alpha or less dangerous as was Omicron after Delta.
This is where the collective benefit of vaccination lies. To be vaccinated is to limit the replication of the virus and therefore the possibility of occurrence ofa new variant potentially more dangerous. On the one hand, this could lead to serious forms in people who do not necessarily have risk factors. On the other hand, it could be highly resistant to vaccinesnullifying the efforts made so far to obtain a vaccination coverage satisfactory.
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