- One week after the start of the vaccinations, a little more than 500 people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in France.
- The government, accused of having implemented a too slow strategy, has set itself as a goal of reaching one million people at risk by February, and 22 millions by the summer.
- Can he make it happen? Yes, because solutions to accelerate vaccination exist, estimate Pascal Crépey, epidemiologist at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health in Rennes, and Caroline de Paw, director of the URPS doctors of Hauts-de-France.
A “state scandal”. The President of the Grand Est region Jean Rottner strongly blamed, this Monday, the slowness of the vaccination campaign against coronavirus in France. A little sentence that swells the concert of critics more and more audible which targets government strategy, while a little more than 500 people were vaccinated on January 1.
In reaction, the government has multiplied the messages in recent hours: a ” follow-up meeting ”of the vaccination organized this Monday at the Elysee Palace and the promise, last night, of the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari to arrive at vaccinate 22 millions of French people by the summer . This Monday, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran affirmed that “several thousand vaccinations” have been carried out in the country. The goal of one million people vaccinated by the end of February “will be met” , for his part assured the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal on Wednesday. Given the slowness of the process, can the government achieve its objectives?
Caution on the vaccinodrome
Yes, agree Pascal Crépey, teacher-researcher in epidemiology at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health, and Caroline de Paw, Director of the Regional Union of Health Professionals (URPS) doctors of Hauts-de-France. “ The Pfizer vaccine requires a fairly important and very demanding logistics . All this requires rapid coordination and resources that did not exist until now, ”she explains. But the administration is “in the process of accelerating the deliveries of super-refrigerators to conserve it and improve the logistics plan”, she says.
For this vaccine fragile, “the concept of” vaccinodromes “would have been particularly suitable to facilitate these problems of storage and conservation”, adds Pascal Crépey. “But this is not the strategy adopted by the government, because of the bad experience of the H1N1 flu epidemic of 500 ”. When it comes to vaccinating the general population, the researcher recommends creating vaccination centers to “allow those who do not have an attending physician to go easily to be vaccinated when they wish”, in order to relieve the liberal medicine network and avoid bottlenecks. “Having everything there, doctor and vaccine, that could make things easier”, he adds.
The essential attending physician
Halfway On the way, Caroline de Paw rather sees groups of doctors in certain territories. “We remain convinced that talking to our usual doctor makes sense, it helps to convince. Professionals from the same territory are already organizing themselves to offer facilitated vaccination locations. It should be able to be organized intelligently, as we have already done on the PCRs. »
On this point, the two specialists agree: the town doctor, a major player in health, must be involved in the vaccination process. “It requires organization in terms of logistics but it is possible because the vaccine can be stored for five days. If the doctors vaccinate enough, there should not be a problem of expiry “, reassures Pascal Crépey.
” In the medium term, we will have other vaccines than this one , which require much less logistics, like that of Moderna . City offices will be able to vaccinate and vaccination will be simplified “, indicates Caroline de Paw.