A tight spot for Covid vaccine in France… To face with tensions caused by the distribution of vaccine and increasing infection cases, this Saturday January 23, 2021 the Haute Autorité de Santé has stated in a release they recommend a 42-day gap between the first and the second dose of vaccine, instead of the 28 days currently recommended for both RNAm vaccines available on the market, namely Pfizer and Moderna.
The HAS therefore considers “the necessity to optimize distribution of doses and guaranteed access equity to vaccine on a very-short term for elderly people” and recommends “deferring the second dose for 6 weeks […] in order to pace up the inoculation of the first dose to people the most at risk” the release reads. Doses that – still according to the document – shall be reserved first to people aged 75+. The idea behind deferring doses? Vaccinating “700,000 extra people the first month, depending on vaccinal ability” and enabling to cover the country better.
But Health Minister Olivier Véran does not agree... And for good reason. This Tuesday January 26, he anncound the current gap "of three to four weeks" will be sustained. "I sustain the injection gap of the two Pfizer doses from 21 to 28 days, namely 3 to 4 weeks, and ask players in charge of vaccination to comply with this recommendation. We are not changing Pfizer vaccine injection schedule" the minister explains on BFMTV. He went on to say: "We are facing something unknown, I choose safety of approved data".
This gap relies on a report from the French Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM) as of January 7. It recommends “flexibility in giving the second dose between 21 and 42 days could be considered given the current specific circumstances, in order to widen the vaccine coverage of people given priority and face supply fluctuations”, while relaying on data from both RNAm vaccine clinical trials.
According to Le Monde, this gap has been already set up in some facilities. This is the case of the AP-HP that announced back in early January they were deferring the second injection: “people vaccinated between January 7 and 15 who have an appointment for the second dose on D+42” a source from the Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris says, adding that “since then, appointments are made on D+28, excluding in nursing homes and [long-term care units], according to recommendations”.
A measure that – if followed by the government – will have the health authorities change their vaccine calendar and postpone many appointments. For the record, in France over 963,000 people have been vaccinated since the vaccine campaign was launched.
