“There is still time to get vaccinated”, encourages the president of the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks

Public Health France indicated on Thursday that the seasonal flu epidemic intensified the week before Christmas in France.

“The flu is accelerating very significantly at the moment, but there is still time to get vaccinated,” recalled, Friday, December 27, on franceinfo the president of the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks (Covars), Brigitte Autran, while Public Health France indicated, Thursday, that the seasonal flu epidemic has strengthened the week before Christmas in France “within the general population” and in particular for “the oldest people”.

She encourages “people at risk” to complete the process as soon as possible. “It’s a vaccine on which we have a lot of perspective, we know that it is very well tolerated, it hurts less and is less tiring than the Covid vaccine.” For people with symptoms, Brigitte Autran strongly recommends barrier gestures, “we knew how to wear the mask during Covid, we must know how to continue to wear it when we have respiratory symptoms”.

Every year, “thousands of deaths” are due to the flu, “It’s really not a negligible disease”insists the president of Covars. “The population understood that, ultimately, the flu was not very serious,” she laments. “This may be true for young people without risk factors, but for elderly or at-risk people, it can lead to hospitalization or even intensive care.”

Brigitte Autran specifies that this year, the vaccine was particularly “well adapted to the virus that is circulating”. The vaccination campaign began on October 15 and continues until January 31.