Does France have the logistical means to manage a new campaign?

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This Friday morning, like the day before, Doctolib proposed a waiting period of 30 minutes before being able to try to make an appointment to be vaccinated. Without any assurance of winning a niche within months … Like an air of “déjà vu”? After Olivier Véran’s announcements on Thursday, there is a rush on booking platforms, quickly saturated by the influx of requests.

A panic linked to two announcements: first from Saturday, all French adults will be able to have their booster dose five months after the last injection, and not six months. On pain of losing your precious health pass, from January 15, if your last injection or a Covid-19 infection is more than seven months old. The other data that may give a boost to reservations is that now, to obtain a health pass, the PCR or antigen test will not be able to go back more than 24 hours against 72 hours so far. A clear and additional incentive for the unvaccinated to take the plunge. But does France have the means to follow on the logistics side?

Will there be enough slots?

Let’s start with a little calculation: starting tomorrow, 25 million French people will be eligible for this third dose (or second for those who have contracted the virus), but 6 million French people have already received this reminder, so there are still 19 million French people left to do. (re) vaccinate.
Unsurprisingly, the dating platforms returned to peaks a few minutes after the government’s announcements.

Doctolib ensures that 1.2 million French people made an appointment Thursday to be vaccinated. This is the second record behind July 13, the day after Emmanuel Macron ‘s announcements on the implementation of the health pass …

In addition, the DGS reveals that 236,047 people have recalled over the last 24 hours. “All the appointments available yesterday in December have been booked. Vaccination centers, pharmacies, doctors, nurses and midwives who vaccinate will open hundreds of thousands of vaccination appointments every day in the coming weeks, ”reassures Stanislas Niox-Chateau, co-founder of Doctolib. Hoping to find an appointment before March, many Internet users are (re) turning to Vitemadosis, which brings together nine meeting platforms.

Enough doses?

Obviously, this opening of new niches depends on the arrival of doses. As a reminder, we only offer messenger RNA: Moderna or Pfizer, regardless of the first vaccine used. But the Pfizer vaccine is recommended for people under the age of 30.

Normally we should be wide. Olivier Véran assured that France had more than 25 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19 and continued to be delivered two million per week. And the Minister of Health clarified
Thursday evening on TF1 : “We have more than enough vaccines in stock to be able to vaccinate all those who should be vaccinated, including those who decide to receive their first injection and those who want a booster. “

Enough places?

With the closure of some vaccinodromes, some Internet users were worried about the difficulties for some of them to obtain a dose. “There are more than 1,000 vaccination centers open, we are going to reopen 300 more”, also announced Olivier Véran during his speech at the 20 hours from TF1. “The regional health agencies (ARS) with the support of prefects and local elected officials will organize the vaccination offer according to needs,” adds the Directorate General of Health. Vaccination centers will be expanded or reopened, starting this weekend. Wherever necessary, centers will be strengthened. In some cases, centers will reopen where they had been closed. “

In addition, to convince some recalcitrant at home, new initiatives to “go to” will be deployed. “We will again call on health mediators for isolated people, in conjunction with local authorities”, explained the Minister.

Enough arms?

Perhaps this is where the concerns emerge. The Directorate-General for Health specifies: “this new phase of the campaign will also be based on an increase in vaccination capacities in town, especially since the latter, which is intended to assume an increasing share of injections during the next few months. The French can therefore already contact all city professionals authorized to vaccinate, in particular their doctors, pharmacists, nurses and midwives. “In fact, injections with Pfizer and Moderna have been possible in the city since October 1, 2021. But have they received these doses, we know that some had to alert at the beginning of the year when the vaccine distribution started. place… “These are nearly 4.9 million Moderna and Pfizer doses that are in the refrigerators of health professionals in the city,” continues the DGS. Almost 3 million Pfizer doses were ordered last week and this week. Health professionals stand and say they are ready to take up this challenge, which was reaffirmed during the consultation with the organizations on Wednesday, November 24. “

But hospitals, emergencies, maternity wards, but also town offices risk being embolized by the fifth wave of coronavirus which is added to winter epidemics: bronchiolitis, gastro, flu, bronchitis … once again to mobilize our caregivers to ensure millions of vaccinations in record time?

“In June, the vaccination centers were not disrupted the staff of emergencies, reassures Bénédicte Vrignaud, pediatrician and responsible for pediatric emergencies at theMother and Child Hospital at Nantes University Hospital. Either they are people who have time, young retirees, caregivers who vaccinated in the evening after their work day, on their days off, on their free time, or we took up teaching, administrative and research time. to go to the vaccination center. But the time spent on vaccination will never penalize emergencies. After the question of energy, it is something else. Health professionals are tired, will there be the motivation to add hours? Florian Zores, cardiologist, also warns about
Twitter on “generalists on the knees” …


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