To deal with a new increase in Covid-19 contamination, the High Authority for Health has just given the green light to a second booster dose for people over 65 at risk of a severe form of the disease.
- Since the start of the booster campaign, 39,348,018 people have received a booster dose.
- As of March 8, 2022, only 74.3% of people over 80 had received a booster vaccine.
To counter the rebound of the Covid-19 epidemic, the High Authority for Health (HAS) has just come out in favor of an extension of the “second reminder” vaccine for people over 65 at risk of a severe form of the disease.
A 4and dose for people who want it
This fourth dose of vaccine, which is already recommended for immunocompromised people, for people aged 80 and over, as well as for residents of nursing homes, is essential to protect the most fragile people, considers the HAS. “The latest French epidemiological data available show that it is still people aged 65 and over who are most at risk of developing a serious form of the disease and dying: as of March 10, 2022, those over 60 thus represented 80% of patients hospitalized with Covid-19”she recalls in his press release.
This new booster dose should, however, be reserved “to people over 65 who wish to do so and who are either at very high risk of a severe form of the disease, or polypathological”. She must be “discussed within the framework of a medical decision shared with the healthcare team, taking into account the individual medical situation”. In addition, the HAS recommends “in the event of a second reminder, preferably respect an interval of at least 6 months with the first reminder”and considers that this second booster dose is not necessary in people who have been contaminated with the Omicron variant, regardless of their age.
No extension of the second reminder to the entire population
Should we expect an extension of the fourth dose of vaccine to the entire population? For the moment, the HAS does not consider it “relevant” due to lack of data on its effectiveness and out of concern for “responsibility issues”. This decision overlaps with that of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday.
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