They must make it possible to stem the eighth wave of Covid-19 which has affected France since the end of August. The new Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against the Omicron variant will be administered as part of a new vaccination campaign, officially launched on Monday, October 3.
Who is concerned ?
Everyone can be vaccinated if they wish, but the High Authority for Health recommends these vaccines as a priority for more fragile people. Residents of nursing homes and long-term care units, people aged 60 and over, immunocompromised people, pregnant women (from the 1st trimester of pregnancy), people with comorbidities (over 18 years old), those living in the entourage of all these categories, as well as caregivers and health professionals, must therefore be given priority.
#Communicated | #Covid19 HAS integrates bivalent vaccines adapted to Omicron variants recently validated by the@EMA_News in the fall vaccination strategy.
https://t.co/XbRTZ0uBlQ pic.twitter.com/wH2X4ep9K3
– High Authority for Health (@HAS_sante) September 20, 2022
Under what conditions can we receive these vaccines?
New vaccines can only be given as a booster dose, not for a first vaccination. Other conditions are required: for people aged 80 and over, residents of nursing homes and long-term care, and immunocompromised people, you must not have been vaccinated or have had Covid-19 during the last three months. For all others, the deadline is six months after the last vaccine and three months after a Covid-19 infection.
Some pharmacies have already received the vaccine from Moderna and have started administering it. In a Parisian pharmacy, visited by journalists from France 2, patients aged 90 and 83 received their injection and hope that it will be effective. “We almost lost a son to Covid three years ago. I know the seriousness”, confides a client. If Moderna vaccines have started to be delivered, the doses from Pfizer will not arrive until Thursday, October 6, according to The Parisian.
What do these vaccines change?
These new messenger RNA vaccines are called “bivalent”, as they target subvariants of Omicron in addition to the original strain of the virus that causes Covid-19 disease. For the High Authority for Health, they must be administered “preferentially” to vaccines “monovalent” (which target only one strain) during this new vaccination campaign. However, a booster dose is strongly recommended for frail people, including with monovalent vaccines when new vaccines are not yet available.
Concretely, Pfizer markets two vaccines. One targets the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants in addition to the original strain. The other targets the BA.1 sub-lineage in addition. For its part, Moderna markets a single bivalent vaccine that targets this Omicron BA.1 sublineage. On the other hand, the Haute Autorité de santé recommends that people under 30 give preference to Pfizer vaccines.