Since the launch of the seasonal flu vaccination campaign on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, many people have flocked to pharmacies. The majority of pharmacies in Lorraine have sold their first stock.
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For the past week, with the launch of the seasonal flu vaccination campaign, the people of Lorraine have flocked to pharmacies. The majority of pharmacies have sold their first stock. Something to worry pharmacists and patients.
Pascal Colin, 62, “fragile person” came to be vaccinated against the flu.
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© Inès Pons-Teixeira
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As the national seasonal flu vaccination campaign opens, the most vulnerable people are encouraged to get vaccinated. The Ministry of Health wishes “to avoid as much as possible a simultaneous circulation of the influenza virus and the Covid-19” and thus calls for the priority vaccination of caregivers and people at risk.
I am a fragile person (…) this year, I am worried not to find a vaccine
Yet the demand for the vaccine among healthy people is already greater than in previous years. In a few days, the stocks are almost gone. Something to worry pharmacists and patients, like Pascal Colin, 62 years old: “I do it every year because I am a fragile person, I do it as a precaution (…) this year, I am worried not to find a vaccine”. Come to be vaccinated in his usual pharmacy located in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), he will have to find another pharmacy. Here, for the next stock, it will be necessary to wait until mid-November.
This is the first year that we have a shortage and this from the first day
Sophie Barbelet, pharmacist and pharmacy assistant in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy.
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© Inès Pons-Teixeira
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In this pharmacy, 450 vaccines left in one day. Usually it takes a month. “This is the first year that we have had a shortage and this from day one. People all rushed, since it is talked about all over the media.”says Sophie Barbelet, pharmacist and pharmacy assistant in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy.
There are only a few flu shots left in this pharmacy in Blénod-lès-Toul (54).
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© Inès Pons-Teixeira
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Same observation in this pharmacy of Blénod-lès-Toul (54). “The day the vaccination campaign was launched, we had already sold 20% of our stock of 400 vaccines. A week later, we have only 40 left. Our next supply is in January”, explains René Paulus, pharmacist from Meurthe-et-Mosellan.
A “Covid-19 effect”
For René Paulus, President of the Order of Pharmacists of the Grand-Est, the explanation is simple: “There is a Covid-19 effect, people rushed a little. The anxiety-provoking communication from the government made everyone rush. Many of our colleagues no longer have vaccines to distribute. We are one not very worried but we should not be alarmist “.
I think that the State has let itself be overwhelmed by the situation and that we are under-staffed
To be able to vaccinate all French people who want it and to restock the 21,000 pharmacies in the country as best as possible, “the Ministry of Health will have to think of a different strategy “, adds the pharmacist for whom “the population must know that pharmacists are not responsible for the situation”.
René Paulus, President of the Order of Pharmacists of the Grand-Est, in his pharmacy in Blénod-lès-Toul (54).
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© Inès Pons-Teixeira
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In France, this year, two-thirds of pharmacies ordered between 10 and 20% of additional stocks. Insufficient however, since on October 16, 2020, 70% of them had already exhausted 60% of their stock.
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