Get vaccinated against flu and Covid at the same time: this is the “annual reflection” that health authorities hope to create in France, especially for people at risk, still insufficiently protected, at the start of the vaccination season, on Tuesday, October 15.
One of the biggest challenges is“anchor the double flu-Covid vaccination” as “Double protection for priority audiences”summarized Sarah Sauneron, Deputy Director General of Health, during a press conference on Monday. Doctors, nurses, midwives and even pharmacists can perform the two injections, which can be applied consecutively, without it being mandatory.
More than 17.2 million French people are specially invited to be vaccinated against these two viral pathologies which, in some cases, can have fatal consequences. The categories targeted primarily are at risk of developing severe forms: people over 65 years of age, residents of nursing homes, people of all ages who suffer from certain chronic diseases or severe obesity, pregnant women. Vaccination is also recommended for caregivers and those close to vulnerable people (seniors, babies, etc.).
Although the seasonal return of the flu is known, Covid-19, which causes several epidemic waves each year, has added a health risk to the autumn-winter period, where other respiratory viruses also circulate, such as those of influenza origin. of bronchiolitis. Vaccination against influenza and Covid aims “protect the most vulnerable, because it helps reduce severe forms and hospitalizations”but also to “reduce pressure on a heavily overburdened health system”stressed the representative of the Ministry of Health.
Another stated objective: to increase the level of flu vaccination of older people, but also of caregivers, which is in decline. “Vaccination coverage for those over 65 years of age has decreased” compared to the previous season, warned the general director of Public Health of France, Caroline Semaille, considering that “It is alarming because hospitalized and intensive care patients are over 65 years old”.
“Post-Covid vaccine fatigue”
This decline was also evident for seniors living in nursing homes, where flu vaccination coverage was the highest last season. “the lowest measured in recent years”said Capucine Ulián, medical advisor to the General Directorate of Social Cohesion. Also “a little alarming” : The decline in flu vaccination among healthcare professionals, including doctors (traditionally more vaccinated than nurses and caregivers), according to Caroline Semaille.
Against Covid, the proportion of older people vaccinated has increased in a year, up to around 30% last season, but “still weak”he pointed out. To explain the insufficient vaccination against flu and Covid, Sarah Sauneron mentioned a “Post-Covid post-vaccine fatigue, quite well documented, and the belief that vaccination does not work, or not always”.
However, Covid and flu vaccines are “well adapted to circulating virus strains” this season and “the benefits far outweigh the risks”with “especially pain at the injection site” as adverse effects, said Caroline Semaille.
For Covid, this year it will be a vaccine aimed at the Omicron JN.1 variant, which has been close to the dominant ones for several weeks. Initially, only the Pfizer-BioNTech serum will be available.
The global workshops
Online courses, evening classes, workshops: develop your skills
Discover
For the flu, three vaccines from different manufacturers can be used interchangeably, designed from the strains of the virus that are expected to circulate most this season. It is advisable to carry out vaccination before the active circulation of influenza viruses, because the body, once vaccinated, needs two weeks to form the necessary antibodies.
The impact of the flu and Covid in the coming months in France is unknown. Last season, the flu returned to a pattern close to that of the pre-Covid-19 pandemic, after two years heavily affected by Covid. However, it caused 14,000 hospitalizations and more than 1,860 deaths, a figure likely underestimated because it is based on incomplete death records.
