[ad_1]
-
France is undertaking an effort to persuade its population to accept the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
-
Regulators say the vaccine is safe and effective, but its performance data has raised doubts.
-
French President Emmanuel Macron has been among those who denigrate the vaccine in the past.
-
Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.
France is working to correct the dire image of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the country, after many in the country were reluctant to take it.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the French Ministry of Health told a press conference that “we need to get into a rehabilitation dynamic for this vaccine”, explaining a problem that had existed for weeks.
The country is counting on AstraZeneca’s shot to speed up its slow vaccination campaign. As of February 23, France had distributed around 3.8 million doses of vaccine.
According to Our World in Data, this places France 11th in the world, behind the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil and Turkey.
As of Thursday, 29,000 family doctors will be allowed to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine in their practices, in hopes of accelerating the rollout.
Some doctors say they plan to have to convince their patients to take it. Rumors that the vaccine does not work well are circulating in the country, as reported by France TV Info.
Speaking to the French specialist publication Le Quotidien du Médecin on Wednesday, Professor Alain Fischer, head of France’s vaccine strategy, stressed that the vaccine is “not inferior” to injections such as those made by Pfizer and Moderna.
The effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been called into question after confusion over the results of its trial eroded people’s confidence in the vaccine.
President Emmanuel Macron was among those who denigrated the coup, saying at the end of January that the vaccine seemed “almost ineffective” in people over 65.
Insider has contacted the French Ministry of Health for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.
The European Medicines Agency reports that jab is 60% effective against COVID-19 in clinical trials, lower than its Pfizer and AstraZeneca counterparts.
The AstraZeneca jab is reserved for people under 65 in France, with priority given to health workers.
Like other countries in Europe such as Germany, French regulators have said there is too little data on how the vaccine works on people over 65 and therefore have not authorized its use on them. .
However, real-world data suggests the coup is proving effective, which may even convince the French government.
On Tuesday, French Health Minister Olivier Véran commented on the “absolutely phenomenal” effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people over 65, as data from the deployment in Scotland show.
He said he was waiting for the data to be reviewed by other scientists before deciding to deploy it to people over 65 as well.
Véran, 40, demonstrated his confidence in the vaccine by getting the vaccine himself on February 8.
France has struggled with resistance from some medical staff to take the AstraZeneca blow.
Earlier this month, the UFLM, a group representing medical staff, called for medical staff to receive only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, fearing that the AstraZeneca vaccine would perform less well.
Some of the first French health workers having been vaccinated, some reported strong flu-like side effects and called industrial patients. This prompted the country to stagger the deployment of its vaccine among health workers.
Fischer, the head of vaccines for the French government, previously dismissed the idea that these side effects were of concern. He criticized the “dramatization” of the side effects when speaking to Europe 1 radio, Le Point reported on February 18.
He said the side effects are mostly seen in younger populations and “hardly anything” happens in people over 50.
France’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start and met with resistance from the start. It is still far behind other countries, with around 3.8 million doses of vaccine delivered as of February 23. That’s just over half of the 7.5 million doses delivered to Israel and 17 times less than the more than 66.4 million doses delivered to the United States, according to Our World in Data.
The country faces historically low confidence in vaccines. In December, a poll found that only 40% of French people wanted to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The country’s confidence in the medical establishment has been shaken by medical scandals, such as the one surrounding the Mediator Diabetes diet pill in 2019.
This mistrust galvanized the rise of opposing figures among anti-Big Pharma and anti-capitalist groups in France, such as Dr Didier Raoult.
In particular, the doctor said that a malaria drug could prevent and cure COVID-19, a theory that has become one of President Donald Trump’s favorites. The claim was later debunked by several lawsuits.
France is not the only country to fight against mistrust of the AstraZeneca coup, with people refusing the vaccine, not showing up for appointments and playing the system seen across Europe and the UK, Insider reported this week.
Thousands of doses of AstraZeneca vaccines have accumulated in Germany due to low demand.
Germany is also launching a campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated.
Read the original article on Business Insider
[ad_2]
Source link