If the number of vaccinations per day does not deflate with 700,000 daily injections, this figure masks another reality on the French vaccine campaign against Covid-19. Indeed, the rate is maintained only by the second doses, while the number of first-time vaccines melts like snow in summer: more than 400,000 per day in early June, just over 200,000 this week. What worry the government which fears not to achieve the objectives set.
“It’s too little, we did a lot better, we must do a lot better”, lectured Jean Castex on Thursday, during a trip to the Landes, where the Delta variant causes a first epidemic rebound. The Prime Minister could only note that “the booking of appointments for the first vaccination is slowing down”, heralding a gently sloping summer. Doctolib now lists less than 150,000 daily registrations for a first dose, against more than 250,000 at the beginning of June.
Vaccination “must now progress among the youngest”
At this rate, the platform for medical appointments provides that a little more than 35 million people will have been vaccinated on July 15, including 29 million with a “complete schedule” (one, two or three doses depending on the case). Not enough to compromise, a priori, the objectives announced last week by the head of government: 40 million people vaccinated, including 85% of adults with “co-morbidities” or aged over 50, and 35 million “complete regimens” by the end of August.
But the lack of enthusiasm observed in recent days pushes the executive to go all out. “We must accelerate, again”, tweeted Emmanuel Macron, calling on all those “who have not yet been vaccinated to make an appointment”. “Be afraid of the virus, above all don’t be afraid of the vaccine. The vaccine is for your health, your safety (and) your freedom, ”said Jean Castex for his part. “Planche de salut”, erected as a “national cause”, vaccination “must now progress among the youngest”, encouraged to obtain this “sesame” which “allows to go to places of culture, sports places (and) to travel abroad, ”he added.
Threat of compulsory vaccination of caregivers
The tone is more coercive with caregivers, in particular in nursing homes, where there are only “42% of professionals fully vaccinated”, according to the Minister for Autonomy, Brigitte Bourguignon. “It is imperative that nursing home staff are all vaccinated by the end of August. We must do more at all costs, ”said Jean Castex. A “solemn appeal” accompanied by a threat: if the “vaccination coverage of caregivers” does not improve, “I could be led to propose a compulsory vaccination (…) probably in September”, indicated Wednesday the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
The French situation is not “unusual or exceptional”, compared to neighboring countries which encounter the same obstacles, among caregivers as in the general population. But “the vaccination campaign is not over,” insisted the minister. During the holidays, the health authorities will multiply initiatives to seek out the undecided and the recalcitrant. Health Insurance will thus extend its call and texting campaigns, until now targeted at the elderly, to insured persons suffering from co-morbidities and to beneficiaries of “complementary health solidarity”. At the same time, liberal doctors will receive the list of their unvaccinated patients next week and the Social Security will strengthen its “partnerships” with associations of chronically ill patients and food distribution centers.
“It would take more than 80% of vaccinated”
The regional health agencies will also push the fire, as in Ile-de-France where “special operations” are scheduled in “very frequented areas” such as the Canopée des Halles in the heart of the capital, but also with “populations”. individuals ”(students, pregnant women, delivery drivers) or“ precarious groups ”(migrant workers, slums).
Efforts that could prove to be insufficient: with a Delta variant 50% to 80% more contagious than the currently dominant Alpha strain, the biologist Samuel Alizon estimates “that more than 80% of vaccines are needed”, or about 55 million people. people, to achieve collective immunity. The epidemiologist Pascal Crépey for his part assesses the threshold at “85% of people immune for the epidemic to stop” and fears a perilous re-entry, “once the summer brake disappears”.