"Vaccinating, vaccinating, vaccinating", so has French President Macron repetead over and over again during his address announcing another tighetning on a national basis. In order to increase vaccination in France, a giant vaccination site is to open from early April in the Stade de France, Saint-Denis and Seine-Saint-Denis authorities told France Info, confirming news from AFP. With a clear goal: vaccinating in the areana row up to 10,000 people per week, to then increase the pace according to doses available.
Yet, all types of vaccines are not treated the same way by Seine-Saint-Denis inhabitants. As a matter of fact, as shared by our peers from Le Parisien, slots are still available to book a vaccine at Stade de France Covid-19 vaccination hub with only Moderna vaccine. All slots for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been stormed on Doctolib appointment platform.
Yet, theoretically speaking, both American vaccines are relatively similar, both around 94% effective. It seems Seine-Saint-Denis inhabitants mistake Moderna vaccine with the one developed by AstraZeneca. The latter clearly does not win the French's hearts after being suspended because of a non-insignificant number of adverse effects reported, especially in the UK.
“As new restrictions have been made to face the epidemic, we are convinced that sole mass and quick vaccination campaign will enable to permanently exit the crisis that particularly hits Seine-Saint-Denis inhabitants” stated on Friday March 19 Seine-Saint-Denis department president Stéphane Troussel and Saint-Denis mayor Mathieu Hanotin in a release.
They go on: “In this context, our collectivities work with the Agence Régionale de Santé (ARS) d’Île-de-France [Île-de-France Regional Health Agency], the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture and Paris fire brigade to open in early April a major vaccination center in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis”.
According to the two elected representatives, this vaccination hub will enable to “vaccine thousands of Seine-Saint-Denis and Île-de-France inhabitants per week”. Motivated by the improvement of the vaccination campaign - and a strategy change decided by the government - the health authorities plan to vaccinated up to 10,000 people per week. "We have been guaranteed by the Regional Health Agency the number of doses will be observed for April", Stade de France programming director Loïc Duroselle told Le Point.
Vaccinating department inhabitants first
Furthermore, the latter brings new details about the gigantic logistics being prepared in the iconic Saint-Denis stadium. "We hope to be able to improve as soon as more doses are available", the programming head considers, reminding that for the vaccine hub's first steps, the 7/7 "morning, noon, and evening" pace promised by Macron will not occur yet. First, the goald set by Seine-Saint-Denis vaccination authorities is first and foremost vaccinating department inhabitants, often overtaken by wealthier people from neighboring territories.
Moreover, Stade de France vaccination head states the sporting arena will keep on housing games as planned, even during the vaccination campaign that takes place in the corridors of the building, and not on the pitch. "Both activities are totally compatible, the space is big enough for everyone", Duroselle states. A giant infrastructure made available free of charge. For a good deed.
Given the critical health situation in Seine-Saint-Denis – with an incidence rate of 546 new cases for 100,000 inhabitants in seven days – the prefecture adds that this department has “enjoyed a superior vaccine supply compared to other Île-de-France departments given the target population, namely 14.1% of doses granted as the target population (75+) represents 10% of the Île-de-France target group”.
