In recent weeks, the executive and the nursing staff have been alarmed by a drop in primary vaccinations. For the first time since early April, over the past week, the number of first dose of vaccine fell below 200,000 injections per day, half as much as a month ago.
Faced with this slowdown, the government recalls the importance of vaccination, more than necessary at a time when the Delta variant, more transmissible and therefore more dangerous, represents 20% of new infections. But faced with the vaccine glass ceiling, new variants, the summer that changes behavior, is it not also time to change communication around the vaccine?
Rediscover the urgency
For Hélène Rossinot, doctor specializing in public health, the answer is obvious: a thousand times yes. “We have to go back to basics, explain what is happening in neighboring countries, especially in the United Kingdom and the importance of getting vaccinated quickly and with two doses. But Olivier Véran is no longer audible, he talks all the time, the general public no longer really listens. I will do a press conference with Jean Castex at least. It’s an emergency, ”she pleads. This is the predominant observation: the feeling of urgency and absolute necessity for vaccination has disappeared, with vacation plans, deconfinement and the spectacular drop in cases.
Certainly, the Delta variant may re-instill a sense of risk, especially given the situation in the UK. But the government is not helping to realize the danger. “We cannot blame young people for waiting until September to be vaccinated and then hearing Olivier Véran declare that he is leaving nursing home carers until… September to be vaccinated. What message are we giving? », Chokes Louis Novic, general practitioner.
Detail the variant
Another change of course to be taken according to the doctor: to provide more detailed and advanced information. “When you see the publications on the fact that 40% of new cases in Israel are vaccinated, and the resulting incomprehension, you think that it is time to explain things much better”, attests- he. In particular, focus more on hospitalizations and deaths which, in the United Kingdom as in Israel, do not follow the curves of the number of new cases. Or that 40% of new cases vaccinated in Israel, in a country where 60% of the population is vaccinated, still shows the effectiveness of the vaccine.
For Louis Novic, the idea – false – that the vaccine is ineffective against the Delta variant must be fought (in reality, two doses of vaccine protect more than 90% against the risk of hospitalization, even of the Delta variant). “With each new variant, we are alarmed by saying that we do not know if the vaccine is effective, before discovering that it is. Result: many only retain the first information, while it is the second that must be hammered out, ”he laments.
Hélène Rossinot is more skeptical about the usefulness of pushing ever more precise and complex information: “I think that the French especially suffer from great weariness. I rather feel a big dropout in the interest, more than a misunderstanding of the facts ”.
Personalize communication
So what to do, apart from hammering out the feeling of urgency and the need for a vaccination before the start of the school year? More than the words said, it is perhaps the form that must change. And the support. For this purpose, Hélène Rossinot produces for example videos in front of the camera, in order to make the discourse more embodied and human: “There is a need for clear, precise and general public information. There is a desire to understand, but a distrust of the media and politicians, and sometimes unfortunately of doctors too. People are looking for reliable sources of information, we need to make that effort. “
Also with this aim in mind, many doctors are asking to have access to the vaccination data of their patients, in order to be able to speak directly with them. Olivier Véran confirmed on Tuesday that this access would be possible soon, without however indicating a date.
A positive start
What to change the situation? “We kill ourselves to repeat it, if people do not go for the vaccine, we must – and the vaccine with it – go to them”, asserts Louis Novic. Those who vaccinate this week should, between the times of the second dose and the two weeks that follow to obtain maximum immunity, be considered to be at best protected from August 25 only, or right before the start of September so feared. on the health front.
All is not lost, far from it. The injunctions to be vaccinated that have been hearing for a few days even seem to bear some fruit. Olivier Véran announced that this week, the number of first vaccination appointments was on the rise, between + 10% and 20%, compared to the previous week. A jump to be transformed into a clear acceleration.