France is reviewing its Covid-19 immunization campaign after a cautious, phased strategy aimed at placating the population most skeptical about vaccination fell down in its first week.
The country has vaccinated only about 350 people so far – compared to 1 million in the UK and 238,000 in Germany – although the government has received 500,000 doses of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine and will receive a similar amount each week in January.
The situation is increasing pressure on President Emmanuel Macron and is in danger of starting another political struggle over how the government managed the pandemic. Opposition politicians criticized the government because of how it spoiled the supply of masks and struggled to implement mass testing last year.
Axel Kahn, a prominent French geneticist, over the weekend called the slow start “a disaster” and blamed excessive government bureaucracy, while the National Academy of Medicine, the doctors’ organization, said “there was no more time to lose” , given that about 300 people died of the virus in France each day.
The Covid-19 death toll in the country is almost 65,000 people so far. Despite two national blocks and ongoing restrictions, it has the highest number of cases in Western Europe, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
An alleged furious Mr. Macron told his government that “things must change quickly and strongly – and will change,” according to a report in the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday.
The government announced changes to its deployment strategy at the end of last week, speeding up the schedule for administering doses to healthcare professionals aged 50 and over, from the end of February until now. He also reversed an earlier decision to rely largely on family doctors to deliver the program, with Health Minister Olivier Véran, promising to open mass vaccination centers “before February”.
France initially planned to focus first on vaccinating the elderly in nursing homes, which face the greatest risk of death from coronavirus. But that posed logistical challenges, with nursing homes without facilities to keep BioNTech / Pfizer at the necessary ultra-low temperatures. The elderly should also have a consultation with a doctor and a waiting period of at least five days before being vaccinated.
France has set a goal to vaccinate 1 million people by the end of February and up to 20 million in the first half of the year. The government and outside consultants advocated a phased approach to allow regulators to analyze additional vaccines and increase public confidence.
Research and academic studies have shown that the French are more cautious about vaccines than any country in the world, and are especially concerned about side effects. A 2018 Gallup-Wellcome Trust study showed that one out of three vaccines at odds was safe, the highest percentage in the 140 countries surveyed.
Philippe Juvin, who heads the emergency room at Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris and is also mayor of a Parisian suburb, criticized the government’s strategy. “The announced changes are still very insufficient: we need to open vaccination to a wider population now,” he told FT over the weekend.
“Going slow does not create trust – on the contrary, it supports the idea that there is something to worry about. All of these excuses hide fundamental preparation problems. “
Juvin pointed to Germany, where about 400 vaccination centers were planned, and said that France needs similar facilities as soon as possible. “Germany ordered specialized freezers in November and guaranteed additional doses outside the EU’s joint purchase agreement. Where are ours? “
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday that it is unfair to judge the vaccination campaign after just a week and that he still has the choice to start with elderly people in nursing homes.
The cautious approach seems to backfire. Only 40 percent of French people interviewed by Ipsos last week said they plan to be vaccinated, up from 54 percent in October and 59 percent in August.
Vaccine caution took root in France around 2009, after the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 was mistreated, said Jocelyn Raude, a sociologist at EHESP, the French school of public health.
“The government is terrified by the anti-vaccine movement and has been marked by the memory of the H1N1 failure,” he said. As a result, public messages to date about the Covid-19 vaccine have focused heavily on potential and unknown risks and not enough on the benefits of the vaccine.
“There is a desire to be transparent and reassuring, but they went too far with precautions,” added Dr. Raude.
Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said she was “somewhat understanding” of France’s approach, given the local “hypercritical” environment.
“We must remember that the way this is handled will be remembered by the public for better or worse. This should not be taken lightly in an effort to go as quickly as possible. “
Additional reporting by Guy Chazan and Joe Miller
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