France launches vaccination program Covid-19 as a slow start to anger

France is revamping its Covid-19 vaccination campaign after a cautious, phased strategy aimed at satisfying the world’s most vaccine-skeptical population collapsed in the first week.

The country has so far vaccinated only about 350 people – compared to the English 1 million and Germany’s 238 000 – although the government has received 500 000 doses of BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine and will receive a similar amount every week in January.

The situation is exacerbated under pressure from President Emmanuel Macron and is in danger of rekindling a political battle over how the government managed the pandemic. Opposition politicians have criticized the government for struggling with mask supplies last year and for conducting mass tests.

Axel Kahn, a leading French geneticist, called the slow start a disaster this past weekend and blamed the excessive government bureaucracy, while the National Academy of Medicine, the doctors’ organization, said there was no more time to waste , as about 300 people die every day in France from the virus.

The country’s Covid-19 death toll so far is nearly 65,000 people. Despite two national exclusions and ongoing restrictions, the Johns Hopkins data has the highest number of cases in Western Europe.

Going slow does not build confidence – on the contrary, it supports the idea that there is something to worry about.

A reportedly angry Mr. Macron told his government that “things need to change quickly and strongly – and they will,” according to a Journal du Dimanche report on Sunday.

The government announced changes to its implementation strategy at the end of last week, which has accelerated the timetable for administering doses to health workers aged 50 and over from the end of February until now. It also reversed an earlier decision to rely primarily on GPs to deliver the program, and Health Minister Olivier Véran has promised to open “before February” mass centers.

France initially planned to concentrate first on vaccinating the elderly in care homes, which have the highest risk of dying from coronavirus. But it has faced logistical challenges, with care homes not having the facilities to keep the BioNTech / Pfizer at the required ultra-low temperatures. Elderly people should also have a consultation with a doctor and a waiting period of at least five days before being vaccinated.

France aimed to vaccinate 1 million people by 1 February and up to 20 million in the first half of the year. The government and external advisers have called for a phased approach to give regulators time to review additional vaccines and build public confidence.

Academic studies and surveys have shown that the French are most cautious about vaccines in any country in the world, and are particularly concerned about side effects. A 2018 Gallup-Wellcome Trust study found that one in three non-vaccinations is safe, the highest percentage in the 140 countries surveyed.

Philippe Juvin, who heads the emergency department at Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris and is also mayor of a Paris suburb, criticized the government’s strategy. “The announced changes are still inadequate: we must now open the vaccine to a wider population,” he told the FT over the weekend.

‘Going slow does not build self-confidence – on the contrary, it supports the idea that there is something to worry about. All of these excuses hide fundamental problems of preparation. ”

Mr Juvin pointed to Germany, where about 400 vaccination centers are planned, and said France needed similar facilities as soon as possible. ‘Germany ordered specialized freezers in November and obtained additional doses outside the EU’s joint purchasing agreement. Where is ours? ”

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday that it was unfair to judge the vaccine campaign after just one week and that it was up to the choice to start with elderly people in care homes.

The cautious approach seems to be. Only 40 percent of French people surveyed by Ipsos last week said they plan to be vaccinated, up from 54 percent in October and 59 percent in August.

Vaccination in France took off in 2009 after the H1N1 flu pandemic was badly handled in 2009, said Jocelyn Raude, a sociologist at EHESP, the French public health school.

“The government is terrified of the anti-vaccine movement and is shocked by the memory of the H1N1 failure,” he said. As a result, public messages so far about the Covid-19 vaccine have focused too much on potential risks and unknowns and not enough on the benefits of the vaccine.

“There is a desire to be transparent and reassuring, but they have gone too far with the precautions,” said Dr. Raude added.

Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said she was ‘somewhat sympathetic’ to France’s approach, given the ‘hypercritical’ environment there.

‘We need to remember that the public will remember, for better or worse, how it is handled. It should not be taken lightly at all in an attempt to go as fast as possible. ‘

Additional reporting by Guy Chazan and Joe Miller