In a press release released this Friday, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends coupling vaccine campaigns against Covid-19 and influenza next fall.
Seized “on the question of anticipating vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 in 2023”, the High Authority of Health (HAS) indicated this Friday to recommend the organization in the fall of a vaccine reminder campaign against Covid-19, “for people at risk of severe forms”.
Among these people at risk? Those “with certain comorbidities whatever their age, people aged 65 and over as well as pregnant women”, details the HAS.
And for “people aged 80 and over, immunocompromised people and people at very high risk of the disease”, an additional booster from spring is recommended.
6 months before the last injection
The authority, whose recommendations the government mainly follows, specifies that this reminder campaign should also concern the entourage and regular contacts of people at risk, as well as “professionals in the health and medico-social sectors”.
This reminder for the most fragile French people must take place at least 6 months before the last injection, and take place as a priority with a messenger RNA vaccine whose formula has been adapted to the Omicron variant, a mutation of the original strain of SARS-Cov -2 now the majority in France.
For logistical reasons, the HAS recommends that the fall recall campaign take place in parallel with the flu vaccination campaign.
Possible “periodic epidemic outbreaks”
In the same press release released this Friday, the High Authority for Health unveils the new vaccine strategy for Covid-19 which is gradually taking shape in France, while the epidemic has been declining since the start of the year. It now aims to give priority to “protecting those most at risk of severe forms of Covid-19”.
The authority also indicates that it “no longer recommends primary vaccination against Covid-19 in the general population”.
This last point does not however mean the end of the epidemic in France, specifies the HAS: “The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still circulating on the territory”.
Before adding: “HAS nevertheless considers it likely that the health situation this year is characterized by periodic epidemic outbreaks caused by a variant close to the variants currently circulating”.
