Moderna Covid vaccine no longer authorised for booster doses in France
France's High Authority for Health decided on Friday not to inject the innoculation developed by Moderna for the country's booster vaccination campaign. RFI looks at the reasons behind the move.
The French health regulator decided on 15th of October to no longer allow the Moderna vaccine to be injected as a booster dose against Covid-19.
Only Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine is used for the booster campaign henceforth for over 65s, immunocompromised people and their relatives, people at risk as well as health workers.
If Moderna had been used until now, the health authority (HAS) did not question its use "in order not to disrupt current campaign".
Friday's move comes as Scandinavian countries flagged up their concerns about potential heart risks.
At the beginning of the month, Sweden and Finland suspended the use of Moderna for those under 30.
Denmark and Norway formally advised against Moderna for people under 18, while Iceland suspended the use of the US laboratory's messenger RNA vaccine as a booster dose altogether.
This follows concerns about the possible risk of inflammation of the myocardium, the heart muscle, and the pericardium, the membrane covering the heart.