Those over 40 can expect to roll up their sleeve again. At least this is the recommendation of the Haute Autorité de santé which, in its opinion of 19 November, recommends administering a booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine for all adults over the age of 40 years and older. While a “fifth wave” of epidemics is emerging in France, this new injection should make it possible to guarantee protection against serious forms of the disease. But not only. Franceinfo explains to you on which scientific bases the HAS bases its recommendation.
This is an already well-known objective: the booster dose is used first of all to prolong the effectiveness of the vaccine, which tends to erode over the months, especially in the most fragile. “The most recent studies confirm a decrease over time in the vaccine efficacy observed in real life against infections linked to the Delta variant (from 30 to 70%)”, already recalled the High Authority of Health in a notice returned in early October. There, the HAS therefore extends to the over 40s the recommendations issued against the over 65 and so-called “at risk” populations. According to the health organization, the booster dose should be administered six months after completing his first vaccination schedule and be performed with a messenger RNA vaccine.
In its latest opinion, the HAS is based on the evolution of vaccination in Israel, a country which shares all of its data with researchers as well as the laboratories behind the main vaccines against Covid-19. The HAS quotes in particular this article of Lancet (in English) who notices “a reduction in the risk of infections, severe forms, hospitalizations and deaths among people 40 years and over who received a booster dose, compared to those who did not ” in the Hebrew state.
The objective of this third dose is also collective. With nearly 75% of its population vaccinated (a rate that climbs to 89% for those over 18), France has one of the highest vaccine coverage in Europe. But this coverage is not infallible, as the professor pointed out on franceinfo. Dominique Le Guludec, president of the HAS college. Moreover, according to her, a contamination after vaccination “resets the counters to zero, as it were.”
In a second opinion issued on November 19, the High Authority for Health indeed alerts on the case of infected people despite a complete vaccination, whose immunity becomes “insufficient”. The body now recommends an additional dose six months after infection “for people eligible for the booster and in whom the infection has occurred after a complete vaccination schedule”. By generalizing this practice, “no matter the age”, Dominique Le Guludec believes that the vaccine could have a “collective benefit” by breaking the transmission chains. Studies carried out by the Institut Pasteur are underway to verify this hypothesis.
Quoted by The Parisian, the head of the infectious diseases department at Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil (Val-de-Marne), Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, assures his side that this third dose is particularly useful for lowering the barrier measures and returning to a more normal life: “Both doses protect against severe forms. The third reduces contamination “, he proclaims, provided that the patients respect the deadline six months after the second injection to receive it. Within six months, the recall does not boost immunity so dramatically.
If the Haute Autorité de santé considers that it is too early to recommend a new booster dose to people under 40, several signs suggest that this campaign could soon concern the entire adult population in France. First, in addition to the article by The Lancet, several studies show that the booster dose is safe and effective. Another important fact is that France has enough vaccine doses to organize a rapid recall campaign. Asked on November 10 about the conditioning of the health pass to the booster dose, Gabriel Attal, government spokesman, also warned on franceinfo that this measure could, in the long term, concern“other audiences”.