Vaccination: “Doubt can kill, doubt still kills”, warns Olivier Véran – LCI

While the health situation remains critical in the West Indies due to the Delta variant, with record incidence rates, especially in Guadeloupe – “2,500 per 100,000 inhabitants, or ten times the national incidence rate” -, the delay in vaccination in the West Indies “will have killed and kill” again, deplored this Thursday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran during a press conference, criticizing the persistence of vaccine mistrust: “fear of the virus yes, fear of the vaccine, no”, he hammered.

To illustrate his point, the minister compared the situation of the West Indies and French Polynesia with that of mainland France, where “massive vaccination” has, according to him, “allowed to avoid the worst”. The fourth wave, which started in July, is “an epidemic that kills mostly unvaccinated, hospitals are full of unvaccinated, deaths affect unvaccinated.

Overseas, “a significant part of the population doubts the vaccine, its effectiveness, thinks that there are other means of fighting the virus. Except that doubt will have killed and sometimes still kills in metropolitan France too”, continued the minister, who said he had “seen with (his) eyes what the Delta variant can cause”.

Olivier Véran also estimated that the target of 50 million first-time vaccines will be reached in the first week of September, but the government “wish to go beyond”, since 57 million French people are eligible. Nearly 60% of adolescents (12/17 years old) are already vaccinated, and “for the remaining 40%, it will be easier” by the campaign planned in schools at the start of the school year.

But for the minister, “the top priority is the 2 million elderly or sick French people who have not yet been vaccinated”. He called for further strengthening of the“move towards”, also asking all caregivers (doctors, nurses) to offer vaccination to their patients who have not yet been vaccinated in conjunction with communities and associations. He announced the sending of targeted letters to the vulnerable not yet vaccinated.

Regarding the third dose of vaccine, Olivier Véran indicated that it concerned “all people 65 years of age and over and / or carriers of diseases which expose them to risks of serious forms”. “In nursing homes, the recall campaign will start in mid-September and will last four weeks”, he continued, adding that “It will be a Pfizer or Moderna messenger RNA vaccine, regardless of the vaccines received previously. It will just be recommended to wait six months between the last injection received and the new one”.

Finally, the Minister of Health insisted on contesting a number of infoxes concerning the vaccine. “No, messenger RNA vaccines do not modify the human genome”, “no, the vaccine does not interfere with women’s fertility”, he detailed in particular.