Vaccines against Covid: Alan Fisher beats recall by more than 60 years

CORONAVIRUS – In the face of the seventh wave of Covid-19, Professor Alan Fisher, chair of the Vaccine Strategy Advisory Board, again called on people over 60 and those at risk to get a second booster vaccine, in an interview published on June 26 in Sunday newspaper.

“Despite the cumulative effect of the injections and infections, the level of protection (for these populations, editor’s note) is no longer optimal,” adds the government’s “Mister Vaccines.” “Moreover, the vaccines remain safe: there are no other side effects for the fourth dose.” For Alain Fischer, “It’s simple, the 8.5 million eligible French people who have not yet received it should go to a pharmacy or their GP.”

Highlights ‘Data [qui] showed that with a fourth dose the rate of neutralizing antibodies rises to the same level after the third dose, and thus “protection against dangerous forms is restored to more than 90% for a certain number of months”. He downplayed, “Honestly, a shot twice a year, it’s not horrible!”.

In April, Olivier Veran, then-Minister of Health, announced the opening of the fourth dose to people aged 60 or over, without it becoming mandatory. After more than two years punctuated by the epidemic, France slipped again at the beginning of summer, like other European countries, in a new wave, carried by new sub-variants of the Omicron family, BA.4 and above all BA.5.

The number of appointments made on Doctolib has started to rise again in recent days. On Friday, about 25,000 booster potion appointments (often a second booster potion) were booked on the platform, a record since the start of the second booster campaign. Nearly 80% of these reservations were made by French men and women aged 60 or over.

For Alan Fisher, these repeated vaccination campaigns testify not to a “relative failure” of messenger RNA vaccines, but to the contrary, “enormous success, even if it remains imperfect.” “These vaccinations prevented too many deaths, hospitalizations and incarceration,” he said.

A new dose in October and December?

Professor Fisher says he hopes that the arrival of four new vaccines in the fall can “reduce the risks of a major wave generated by a new variant”. “Ideally, they would be in early fall rather than December, to be combined with a flu vaccination,” he said.

“Anyone over 80 can benefit from it in October; a sexologist who will do their fourth injection today can receive a new reminder with these new products in December,” argues Alan Fisher, paving the way for a third reminder campaign at the end of the year.

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