France begins administering Covid-19 boosters for 65+, people with ‘underlying’ health conditions

Amid the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19, France on Wednesday began administering booster vaccines for people above the age of 65 years and those with underlying health conditions to improve the protection from the vaccine against the disease, according to several news reports.

However, people who received their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccines at least six months earlier could only avail the booster shots. Both the vaccines follow a two-dose regimen and are based on the mRNA technology. Further, the people who have so far been immunised with the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine will also be receiving a Pfizer shot as a booster at least four weeks after the first vaccination, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, the booster campaign also began in nursing homes across the country on September 12, the Associated Press also reported, citing the country's health ministry. Close to 18 million people would be eligible to receive booster doses. France became the first major European nation to begin inoculating its citizens with booster doses, with several other countries in Europe to follow.

Earlier on August 24, the French National Authority for Health (HAS), announced its recommendations regarding the booster programme. It also said that the fourth wave of Covid-19 was proceeding in the country and was driven by the Delta variant. "HAS considers that there is no sufficient argument, till date, to preferentially recommend one vaccine over the other for the booster dose, and that the two available mRNA vaccines are very effective against severe forms of Covid-19, including those related to the Delta variant," it said in a statement.

The booster programme in France begins as 70% of the adult population have been fully vaccinated in the European Union. Data from the Covid-19 vaccine dashboard of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) showed that as of September 1, 76.3% of the French population have been inoculated with at least one dose of the vaccine while 61.8% have been fully vaccinated.

Notably, the World Health Organization has previously expressed their concerns about booster programmes in countries that have sufficient vaccine arsenal while some countries have not even delivered first doses to their population. Several WHO experts have earlier expressed concerns about equitable distribution of vaccines globally and also said that the present data does not show that a booster shot was needed.