The slots for vaccination with AstraZeneca are struggling to find takers. And for general practitioners who can administer them in their practices, it has become very difficult to convince patients.

“As the patients I see in my office, I ask them. And we have a moment of negotiation. An intense negotiation. It’s harder to negotiate to make an Astrazeneca vaccine than to set up a treatment for diabetes or hypertension, it’s extraordinary! ”, Underlines Richard Handschuh, general practitioner in Paris.

Doses far from wasted

Nathalie Coutinet, economist and teacher-researcher at Paris-Nord University, is reassuring about these unused doses: “They will undoubtedly be given to a certain number of southern countries which lack doses. Europe and France have already given a certain number of doses to southern countries. It is indeed countries of Africa, certain countries of South-East Asia for example, or Latin America.”

A logical choice for this health economist: “The idea, however, was that the Astrazeneca vaccine, or the Sanofi vaccine, which was behind schedule, were vaccines which, given their cost, their method of storage, were better suited for countries. from South”. France must still receive four million Astrazeneca doses before the end of June.