Covid-19: declining immunity, insufficient vaccination coverage… why the authorities are opening a new vaccination campaign

It is a gesture which remains of capital importance today: France has opened a new page in its vaccination policy against Covid-19.

Since April 27 – and until June 16 – the Directorate General for Health (DGS) has set up a new vaccination campaign aimed at those most at risk: these include people with over 80, immunocompromised patients, residents of nursing homes and long-term care units and people who are at very high risk of severe forms of Covid-19.

The general population is no longer concerned by vaccination: in an opinion issued last February, the High Authority for Health had excluded people in good health from its recommendations.

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According to the DGS, vaccination “remains necessary” in the face of the still “active” circulation of Covid-19 and the “insufficient level of vaccine reminders”. Indeed, over the last three months, only 3% of people over 80 have received a dose of vaccine against the virus. In addition, 22% of people aged 60 to 79 have been vaccinated in the last six months.

A decline in immunity after six months

A booster shot is only possible if the last dose was injected at least six months ago. The injections will be done directly in nursing homes, in pharmacies, or with attending physicians and nurses. It will also be necessary to expect a new vaccination campaign in the next six months: this will be based “on the model of influenza vaccination”, specifies the DGS.

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“It is not the number of doses that protects, it is the dose schedule, recalls for his part Gilles Pialoux, infectiologist, with our colleagues fromEuropean 1. All the elements converge to say that after six months of a vaccine injection, there is a drop in immunity.

Remobilization is all the more necessary as the number of deaths linked to Covid-19 remains high: 750 deaths linked to the virus have been recorded over the past 30 days.