Despite this recommendation, the government decided to maintain the time limit at four months after a primary vaccination.
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New recommendations. Faced with the fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic which does explode the number of contaminations and while the Omicron variant is spreading in France, the High Authority of Health recommends, in its opinion published Friday, December 24, that the vaccine booster dose can be carried out after a period reduced to three months.
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But the Ministry of Health has decided to keep the deadline at four months now, instead of waiting for January 3, when this new deadline was to come into force. Until then, the time limit for the booster dose was 5 months after the previous injection.
The HAS justifies this recommendation by the fact that, according to the latest published studies, the vaccines are 80% effective for one to two months against the non-serious symptomatic forms of the Omicron variant, but lose their effectiveness more quickly than with the previous variants. . The effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine would drop to 34% four months after a primary vaccination.
These same data show a rise in vaccine efficacy to 75% two weeks after a booster dose. The instance also considered work suggesting that the very rapid administration of a booster dose to the majority of the adult population would reduce the mortality associated with Covid-19 linked to the Omicron variant by 15%.
In addition, it recommends administering a booster to adolescents 12 to 17 years of age most at risk, suffering from immunodeficiency or a serious risk comorbidity, under the same procedures as adults. It specifies that it will decide later on the administration of this booster to all adolescents, pending the results of a clinical trial conducted by Pfizer to assess the efficacy and safety of this booster dose in this age group.