Faced with the increase in Covid-19 cases, the MG France union expects Emmanuel Macron to give “a boost to the booster vaccination”. “We may be at the start of a new wave”, says Sunday, November 7 on franceinfo, Jacques Battistoni, president of the union of general practitioners, while the President of the Republic is to speak Tuesday evening, at 8 p.m. The Head of State will have to decide on a third dose of vaccine which may be necessary to maintain his health pass.
franceinfo: What recommendations do you expect from the President of the Republic on Tuesday?
Jacques Battistoni: I’m waiting for the reminder that we may be at the start of a new wave that is not very intense, not very strong, but we can still see that for several weeks, the numbers have been rising. We see that the foreign countries around us are also affected. We must undoubtedly give a little boost to the booster vaccination, a third dose for some, or a second dose when we have had Covid-19 and therefore we expect that from the President of the Republic. There are two main targets today, the elderly and people with risk factors for severe forms. It is especially the elderly who are the best vaccinated. Today, we arrive at 30% of these people who have had their booster dose and it is rather satisfactory, while for other people, it is a little less. Maybe we have distanced ourselves a little from the epidemic, we think less about it. So, this is undoubtedly why the message from the President of the Republic can be useful.
The simple announcement of a speech by the Head of State on Tuesday increased the number of appointments with doctors?
Yes, it is very astonishing. There is a strong psychological effect. We all remember what happened this summer with the announcements just before July 14 that changed things. We have to stimulate people’s motivation a little.
Do you think that this campaign should be extended now to all French people?
It is very likely that we will expand it. It also makes sense to vaccinate first those who are most exposed, but also those who had the vaccine the longest ago. But the situation is still very different from the one we experienced in the spring and especially during the winter, we now have many more doses available. We even have stocks. We just have a problem because the Moderna vaccine has been interrupted in its distribution. Today, we are not authorized to make recalls with the Moderna vaccine, which gives a few more reactions. We are waiting imminently for the opinion of the High Health Authority, which must authorize us to vaccinate again with the Moderna vaccine. It should help us too. Despite a resumption of the epidemic, we can see that things are picking up not very quickly, not very strongly. And I tell myself that one of the factors is most probably the fact that the percentage of the vaccinated population, which is still far from negligible, means that the virus circulates much less than if we were a year ago , for example. A year ago, we would undoubtedly have had a new wave much faster.