The national vaccination campaign against Covid-19 continues to spill ink: after the low number of French people vaccinated, it is now the injection method that is the subject of debate.
Because on the images broadcast on television and on the internet since the end of December 2020, we can observe a major difference: some caregivers pinch the patient’s skin before injecting the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine by pricking at an angle, while others prick vertical and deep, without pinching the skin.
Method of injecting the anti-Covid-19 vaccine: is it really important?
Yes. Because as explained by Prof. Frédéric Lagarce, professor of biopharmacy, researcher specializing in nanomedicines and vice-dean of the Faculty of Health of Angers, interviewed by our colleagues from Figaro, “the vaccine should be done strictly intramuscularly. Doing it subcutaneously increases the risk of ineffectiveness: the lipid nanoparticles could release their content (the messenger RNA) in the fat of the hypodermis rather than in the muscle.“
In short: when the vaccine against Covid-19 is administered by pinching the skin (“subcutaneously”, therefore), it may not work. The correct injection method is indicated on the vaccine leaflet: the vaccine should be administered by straining “firmly the skin between the index finger and the thumb without making a skin fold“with the needle vertically. A notice which was obviously read diagonally by the health authorities who recommended (in December 2020) to vaccinate in nursing homes”by making a skin fold“…
And there could be another problem: according to Dr. Laurent Fignon, geriatrician at the Cannes hospital, interviewed by our colleagues from France Info, the needles delivered “are too short“.”Syringes have been received with 0.5mm by 16mm needles, which are not suitable for strict intramuscular injection.“. In short, the anti-Covid vaccination is not yet won!
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