The authorization of vaccines against Omicron is “good news”, reacted Thursday on franceinfo the immunologist Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the infectious diseases department of the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday approved Covid-19 vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, The vaccines “target the Omicron BA.1 subvariant in addition to the original strain” of the coronavirus, specifies the EMA.
According to Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, member of the Technical Commission for Vaccinations of the High Authority for Health (HAS) and expert with the WHO, for people at risk, it is not necessary to “not expect too much” to be vaccinated with these new vaccines. The immunologist also believes that it is “very likely that the epidemic will start again”.
franceinfo: Are these new vaccines useful?
Jean-Daniel Lelievre: The usefulness of these new vaccines seems relatively obvious. If we compare to what we do, for example, for the flu vaccine, when the flu virus mutates and changes, we change the vaccine against this virus. We are in the same context. It’s an update. We saw these new variants arrive very quickly. We have to adapt to these new variants. Messenger RNA techniques allow very quickly to have new vaccines. So it’s rather good news to have these new vaccines.
Should we wait before using these vaccines?
The vaccines currently in use, Moderna and Pfizer, are effective against Omicron, including the latest variants of Omicron. The question is, are specific vaccines going to be more effective? There, the immunological data seem to show that the level of antibodies directed against Omicron will be higher with these vaccines. Even if the epidemic curve currently shows a downward trend in the number of infections, we are still possibly at risk of being infected for people who are most at risk of having serious forms. So waiting for the implementation and availability of these vaccines can also be a bet on his health. I would tend to say that if you were vaccinated a very long time ago and you needed an additional dose, don’t wait too long.
Do you expect an epidemic resumption with this start of the school year as has been the case in previous years?
Unfortunately, there’s no reason not to expect a similar scenario. The good news in climate harms is that high temperatures seem to promote virus transmission less. At present, we are perhaps a little less at risk. But very quickly, they will drop. We are going to resume contacts inside schools, inside all work structures, in public transport. And so, unfortunately, it is very likely that the epidemic will start again.
Will we have to redo pedagogy, communication around the need for vaccination?
It is always essential to do pedagogy if you really do pedagogy. If the pedagogy is, I’m going to give a compulsory vaccination and I’m not explaining to you how, no, you shouldn’t do that. But re-explaining that additional doses will have to be taken, that these additional doses can more or less be expected depending on your risk factors, that is essential. It is also essential vis-à-vis my colleagues because there have been many conflicts with nursing staff around the vaccination obligation. There, it is necessary to work of pedagogy in an important way, because it is important that the caregivers can be vaccinated.