Since Monday, the testimonies that evoke the difficulties in accessing vaccination against monkeypox have multiplied. “I sent an email to all the offered centers: there is no response”, writes a user. “There is no access to the vaccine due to lack of availability,” says another. Everyone is worried about the possibility of being infected by someone, or infecting someone, during the summer, when there is a vaccine.

“With already 600 confirmed cases in our country (912 according to the last report on Tuesday, editor’s note) and probably many more to come, the reported difficulties in vaccination – to obtain an appointment in particular – must be resolved to contain the epidemic. “, Deputy Arthur Delaporte (Nupes) wrote on Tuesday in a question to the government.

Faced with the increase in monkeypox cases and the difficulties in tracing the chains of contamination, France, however, announced on Friday the extension of vaccination from the beginning of the week. Until then, recommended for contact cases, now “the groups most exposed to the virus” can be vaccinated preventively.

These are “men who have sex with men and trans people who report multiple sexual partners, people in a situation of prostitution, professionals in places of sexual consumption”, specifies the HAS.

“We only have 40 doses for the week!”

From this Monday, a dozen places were going to offer vaccination in Ile-de-France, the most affected region to date with 569 confirmed cases. But the testimonies on social networks point to the impossibility of being vaccinated, due to lack of available quotas, which is confirmed by a rapid investigation into Doctolib. Dates pop up from time to time, but are quickly exceeded.

“The vaccination beaches in Bichat are saturated,” the hospital responds by email after an appointment request. “For any vaccination request, you can contact the other vaccination centers,” which are also overloaded and lack vaccines.

“Stop insulting the staff who received several hundred calls this morning for the (monkeypox) vaccine when we only have 40 doses for the week!” writes on Twitter Willy Rozenbaum, doctor at Saint Louis Hospital in Paris. “We cannot admit the lack of transparent information to applicants: when and how many vaccines for them? There’s an emergency.” Socialist senator Bernard Jomier writes for his part on twitter.

“Where are the vaccines?” questions again Act Up-Paris.

Delays “during the first days of the campaign”

The General Directorate of Health (DGS) acknowledged in a press release this Tuesday that “given the high demand, delays in making appointments and injections can be observed during the first days of the campaign” and at the same time guaranteed “that all people affected by HAS indications can be vaccinated”.

Doses of monkeypox vaccines have started arriving at 70 vaccination centers in France, with an increase in the coming days, health authorities said on Wednesday. In detail, 7,500 doses have already been discounted from the national stock of smallpox vaccines, said Dr. Clément Lazarus, from the General Directorate of Health, during a hearing on monkeypox before the Senate’s Social Affairs Committee.

The Regional Health Agency of Île-de-France has already specified for its part that “preventive vaccinations are gradually opening (in the region), the structures designated by the ARS offer vaccination to their patients and will quickly open new time slots only with appointment”. .

The ARS also adds that “priority in hospital services should be given to post-exposure situations,” that is, to those who have already been potentially exposed to the virus.

“Not the strike force of a vaccination center”

For Benjamin Davido, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine), it is not so much the number of vaccines as the organization that is in question in the current deadlines. A vaccination against variole du singe réclame au soignant une nouvelle procédure pour la traçabilité, que “n’est pas encore automatisée comme pour le Covid-19”, deplore l’infectiologue, que salue toutefois l’ouverture de la vaccination a un public longer.

Not to mention, hospital staff have to juggle the usual demands, as well as the coronavirus, and cannot provide as many vaccines as demands. Willy Rozenbaum criticizes like this “a lack of available human resources already overwhelmed in the centers”.

“We had 20 doses this week, but we can recommend more,” says Benjamín Davido. “The problem is that we don’t have the strike force of a vaccination center.”

He wants all the tools put in place to simplify coronavirus vaccination to apply to monkeypox. “We need a Quick My Dose,” she says, for example, while calling for the opening of vacunodromes to vaccinate massively and quickly.

“We have a population that wants to be vaccinated, that is good news. It has to be simple for them so that they don’t get discouraged and just take a dose of both, for example,” says Benjamín Davido. “We have to vaccinate massively so that it ends at the end of summer” and that the population at risk is vaccinated at the beginning of the school year.

Centers that open in the regions

At the moment, outside the Île-de-France, the centers are opening little by little. “For logistical reasons, no center will be able to carry out preventive vaccinations before July 18,” warns the ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on its site. The ARS Hauts-de-France offers several sites to vaccinate and specifies that this list “will be completed over time, and new sites are expected in the coming days.”

In Grand Est, “the vaccination center in Reims is open and works on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The one in Strasbourg is also operational,” ARS told BFMTV.com. For the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, “the center will be open from July 18”.

“5,000 doses are already planned for next week and the following week, and we will continue like this according to the needs of the regional health organizations that have informed us (…) as the vaccination centers open,” said Clément Lazarus this Wednesday.

Jérôme Salomon had warned last week that France could respond “in the coming weeks” to the needs of the centers, therefore not immediately after the announcement. In the meantime, the authorities have decided to establish a free “Monkeypox Information Service” number (0801 90 80 69) accessible from 8 am to 11 pm and 7 days a week to inform the public about the epidemic and vaccination.