THE ESSENTIAL
- 21,169 patients are currently hospitalized for Covid-19 and 3,759 people are in intensive care.
- Since the start of the anti-Covid vaccination campaign in France, 53,123,626 people have received at least one injection (i.e. 78.8% of the total population) and 51,916,583 people now have a complete vaccination schedule (i.e. 77% of the total population).
At a press conference preceding the 26th edition of the CPLF, Pr Claire Andréjak, pulmonologist at the Amiens-Picardie University Hospital and head of a pneumo-infectiology research group (GREPI), took stock of two years health crisis.
“Without the vaccines, the hospital would have died”
The year 2021 was of course first marked by the arrival of anti-Covid vaccines. “They may not be perfect, but they have changed the game, protecting serious forms and limiting contamination “, recalls Claire Andréjak. “If we had not had these vaccines, today the hospital would have died”, continues the specialist.
“Monoclonal antibodies are effective”
Regarding treatments against the coronavirus, “Monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized care, especially for people who do not respond to vaccination. They are effective against the majority of variants, except unfortunately for Omicron. They will therefore not be used in the latter case”, explains Claire Andréjak.
“New promising molecules”
In addition to monoclonal antibodies, new curative molecules * are or should soon arrive on the market. “They are promising, but to be effective, they must be administered very early, which implies a particular organization, in particular at the level of the tests”, estimates the pulmonologist. “It will also be necessary to target the patients who need it, so as not to be faced with production problems”, she adds.
“We must talk about a booster dose, not a third dose”
Regarding the third dose, now required in the future vaccine pass, Claire Andréjak considers that this term is not appropriate. “We should not speak of a third dose but of a booster dose, because after two injections, the vaccination schedule is over. The immunity is already there, and the interventions that follow only reboost it”. She also recalls “that rare are the vaccines where a single dose is sufficient. Children are vaccinated against certain diseases (polio, whooping cough, tetanus) at 4 months, then have boosters at one year, at 6 years, sometimes even in adulthood “. And to add: “Only the future will tell us whether to do a second booster dose (or 4 dose, Editor’s note), and if so, when will be the right time”.
“Fewer patients in shifts with Omicron”
Regarding the Omicron variant, which is making rapid progress throughout France, “The first data show that it is more transmissible but less pathogenic. There will therefore probably be fewer patients in intensive care during this wave, with an impact rather directed on conventional care”, Claire Andréjak analyzes. In the Marseille department of Dr Hervé Pegliasco, “all patients in intensive care are affected by the Delta variant, there is currently no Omicron case”, confirms the pulmonologist of the European Hospital.
“We will have to get out of screening, tracing, isolating”
Finally, “Sras-cov-2 will not disappear, we will live with it. If Omicron is indeed very contagious and not very pathogenic, it could replace Delta, allow the long-awaited collective immunity and become a classic winter virus, which we can let circulate because the serious cases will remain limited. Of course, the hindsight is still too low, and these encouraging trends remain to be confirmed! “, ends Claire Andréjak. And to conclude: “with Omicron, the government strategy of detecting, tracing and isolating will soon no longer be feasible, it will have to come out at some point.”
* Antivirals called Molnupiravir (already available) and Paxlovid (under evaluation).