A Covid-19 vaccine (illustration). – SYSPEO / SIPA
Six months rather than six weeks. The Academy of Medicine would like to extend the time between the two doses of anti-Covid-19 Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in those under 55, so that more people can have a first injection.
This would allow “to accelerate the mass vaccination campaign” and “to achieve collective immunity much more quickly with the same number of doses while ensuring satisfactory individual protection”, judges the Academy of Medicine in a press release Thursday. However, this body has no decision-making power: it is the High Authority for Health (HAS) which can take this type of decision, requiring the approval of the government.
The space today is 42 days
Since Wednesday, the spacing between two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna (so-called messenger RNA) vaccines has been set at 42 days, against 28 previously. “It will allow us to vaccinate faster without seeing a reduction in protection,” assured the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, at the JDD.
The Academy of Medicine wants to go further: it recommends “delaying by 6 months the date of the second injection of messenger RNA vaccine in immunocompetent people (who have no immune deficiency) aged under 55 years” . For now, to be vaccinated at under 55, you must either be part of the priority professions (caregivers, firefighters, home helpers) or be affected by certain pathologies. The Academy of Medicine also recommends “to postpone the vaccination of people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 (…) to 6 months after” a positive PCR test.
The fear of new variants
All this would, according to her, “expand the population of people who can receive a first injection of messenger RNA vaccine, which would make it possible to offer it as soon as possible to people at high risk, in particular to teaching professionals”.
To make these recommendations, the Academy relies on recent studies carried out in the United States and the United Kingdom, which “demonstrate that a single dose of a messenger RNA vaccine rapidly confers very high protection”, in however waiting for a fortnight or even twenty days after the vaccination.
On the other hand, it takes into account the fact that the English variant of the coronavirus, more contagious, is today dominant in France, which according to it requires “to accelerate” the vaccination. However, some scientists are reluctant to extend the spacing between doses in this way: they fear that the incomplete protection provided by the first injection may favor the emergence of new variants.