A vaccination center in Cannes. – Lionel urman
A new target population to accelerate in the face of Covid-19. While vaccination was currently authorized for everyone in France from the age of 55, it is now open, since Saturday, “to some 4 million fragile French”, as announced by Olivier Véran.
These are adults who “suffer from chronic diseases”, ie an extension to all adults of the list of pathologies which previously opened up vaccination to 50-54 year olds. This list includes cardiovascular pathologies, “complicated hypertension” (not common hypertension, which is very common), obesity (body mass index greater than 30) or a history of stroke.
The contract of trust
However, no “medical prescription” will be requested, said the Ministry of Health: “Upon declaration of their (s) comorbidity (s), (these adults) can be vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines”.
The risk: that some may be tempted to be vaccinated without actually being affected by these pathologies. “We trust people,” the ministry assured AFP, recalling that this mechanism was already in effect for the over 50s concerned.
Rendezvous for all on June 15
This opening comes as in recent days, many voices have been raised to put pressure on the government to open the floodgates of vaccination. This has been the case since Friday in a large part of the Overseas Territories (including Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana), where all adults can be vaccinated. And in metropolitan France, another step is planned: all French people over the age of 18 will be able to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from June 15, Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday. “You are 18 years of age or over: meet on June 15 to get vaccinated,” assured the President of the Republic on Twitter.
Those over 50 without any particular disease will have less time to wait: for them, the vaccination will be open on May 15. In total, more than 15 million people have already received a first injection (29% of the adult population), of which 6.2 million have been fully vaccinated (9.3% of the total population, 11.9% of the major).