In the back of the shop, behind the counter, Julien, the pharmacist, takes inventory: “The vaccines, we received them this morning”. His pharmacy, in the 6th arrondissement of Marseille, is one of five pharmacies in France – in Paris, Fréjus, Lille and Marseille – to be able to inject doses of monkeypox vaccines to people most at risk, namely homosexuals. who have multiple partners and sex workers.
A “target” audience that does not always find a niche in the vaccination centers already open. “These doses come from La Timone and are thawed at that timeexplains Julian. We will be able to keep them for 14 days in the fridge, so at five degrees. In all, we received a few dozen doses.” And all of them have already found takers.
“We had about 40 appointments and they were all booked in less than twelve hours. So, at the moment, we don’t have an extra dose.”
Julien, pharmacist in Marseilleat franceinfo
It is precisely for this reason that he refuses to mention the name of his pharmacy. “There’s no point in coming to ask us if we have doses or not, since for the moment, we don’t have any. If we ever have any, it will be on Doctolib”he says.
Slots are rare and some patients have been struggling for days to get an appointment. “I had a hard time finding an appointment for my first dose.says one of them. I spent a whole week on the phone, and luckily I found a job in Marseille.” He believes that vaccination should be extended to the wider world: “It has to go through pharmacies, through vaccination centers, or directly to the attending physician, to reach as many bodies and people as possible.”
>> “We risk paying very dearly for this delay in ignition”: the slowness and opacity of the vaccination campaign against monkeypox worry the target public
While the vaccination campaign against monkeypox is highly criticized, in particular by several LGBT associations, this experimental phase will make it possible to assess the needs in three test regions, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, explains Sébastien Debeaumont deputy general manager of the regional health agency in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
“These are already interesting scales for measuring the effectiveness of the dispensing of the vaccine in pharmacies. We will see how the population responds to this demand which supplements the existing offer.”
Sébastien Debeaumont, from the regional health agency in PACAat franceinfo
“It will make it possible to verify the logistical conditions for securing the cold chain until the vaccine can be injected, but also to verify that the pharmacies are indeed equipped to do so.he adds. That’s why we set ourselves fifteen days.” This experimental phase could lead to an expansion of vaccination in other pharmacies.