It seems Emmanuel Macron has caused a wave of panic among the French: in only one week, 2.6 million citizens have made an appointment to get vaccinated. The reason of this movement? The soon implementation of the extension of the health pass: from July 21, the latter will be compulsory to access some places of leisure over 50 people.
To get the health pass in a lasting and easy way, many French have opted for vaccination, causing a meaningful demand in doses.
This Saturday July 17, the French Prime Minister brought it up again when visiting South-Western France: “the line is clear, we must vaccinate, we must realize the health pass (…) to prevent from making the strong curbing measures we knew again. (…) I hear reluctances but I think we must convince our fellow citizens to get vaccinated at all costs”, he insisted on.
But has France enough vaccine stock to immunize everyone?
Since Monday July 12, and the presidential statements, Olivier Véran claims: “We have doses”. The government guarantees on their data.gouv website that nine million vaccine doses are available in France and waiting to be injected. A number that seems to be able to meet all demands.
Yet, out of the nine million doses, five come from mRNA vaccine: the Pfizer (four million doses) and Moderna (one million) vaccines. France then own millions of doses of vaccines that cannot be used by people under 55 years of age. But this is this very range of the population that is the least vaccinated and need more doses.
The latest Santé Publique France report states that only 35.7% of people aged 18 to 39 are vaccinated. Since mRNA vaccines require two doses (and sometimes a third one for those the most at risk), France can actually only fully vaccinate three million people under 55 years old. Almost the entire vaccine stock is then already used.
So, how is it possible to immunize the others? The executive remains confident: the Health General Direction told LCI that 9.6 million doses are to be delivered to France by the end of July, and 14 million by the end of August. By the end of the summer, France will then enjoy 32.6 million doses, all vaccines included.
A wonderful amount – but that is still not enough. There are still 16 million French eligible for vaccination (with two doses, including 32 vaccines) and eight million waiting for their second dose. The State then needs 48 million doses to fully protect their people. And without counting – we remind you – the third dose used as a booster shot, set to be instated this Fall.
Yet, the government gets it: despite the health pass and the threat from variants, some French are still strongly against vaccination. The executive took this data into account when ordering vaccines. According to a CoviPrev investigation as of June 2021, 24% of people surveyed do not want to get vaccinated. It represents more or less 10 million French eligible to vaccine.
