Covid-19: French health authorities recommend a 3rd dose of vaccine for caregivers

All caregivers should be able to receive a "third dose" of anti-Covid-19 vaccine, as well as those around immunocompromised people and health transport personnel, French health authorities said on Wednesday. This reminder was previously reserved for the elderly and at risk.

First the oldest and most fragile, tomorrow everyone? French health authorities are now recommending a third dose of the anti-Covid vaccine for each caregiver and indicate that they could soon do the same for all adults.

The High Authority for Health (HAS) "expands the scope of the booster dose" of vaccines against Covid-19, she announced, Wednesday, October 6, in a press release.

The HAS recommends extending this reminder to "caregivers, medical transport and professionals in the medico-social sector", she announces, two days after her European counterpart paved the way for a generalization of the third dose.

"She also recommends offering it to those around immunocompromised people," she adds in this opinion that the government must now choose to follow or not.

In France, a recall campaign has already been underway since September, in the face of the loss of effectiveness of anti-Covid vaccines over time, despite still high protection against severe forms of the disease. But until now, only those over 65 and those at risk, such as diabetics, could benefit. This affected 18 million people.

The European Medicines Authority changed the game on Wednesday. It authorized the generalization of a reminder to all adults, leaving to the authorities of each country of the European Union (EU) the precise choice of the persons concerned. For the time being, this booster dose must necessarily come from a Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, based on messenger RNA technology.

Still many debates on the need for a recall

By recommending the third dose to caregivers, other similar professions and relatives of immunocompromised, the HAS is opening it to nearly four million other people in France.

Above all, the health authority is paving the way for a generalization of the reminder to all adults, even if it considers the measure still premature.

Even if the circumstances do not "at this stage justify recommending the administration of an additional dose in the general population, (...) the HAS nevertheless underlines that the administration of a booster dose will probably become necessary during the months to come ".

The need for a booster dose is still the subject of much debate in the scientific world, its interest still to be assessed for the entire population.

To make its decision, the HAS mainly cites a study conducted in Israel, a country where vaccination began very early. It shows a clear reduction in the risks of severe form in people who received a booster dose, but the study only concerns those over 60 years of age.