Abstract
Introduction: Since the beginning of 2021, general practitioners (GPs) have been massively confronted with adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported by their patients vaccinated against COVID-19. They were also greatly solicited by their patients, and they had themselves numerous questions about COVID-19 vaccines.Material and methods: Between January and August 2021, we retrospectively analyzed (i) the requests for information concerning COVID-19 vaccines addressed by GPs to the Regional Centre of Pharmacovigilance (CRPV) of Montpellier France, and (ii) the ADRs related to COVID-19 vaccines reported to the French pharmacovigilance system by GPs at the national level.Results: During this period, the CRPV of Montpellier received 121 requests concerning COVID-19 vaccines from GP (6% of the total requests sent to the CPRV). Compared to previous years, requests from GPs increased threefold in 2021. More than 50% of the requests concerned the indication, with 39% concerning the indication of the second dose in the case of ADR reported after the first dose. The questions were mainly about COMIRNATY (63%) (the most administered vaccine) and VAXZEVRIA (27%) (the vaccine whose serious risks such as atypical thrombosis were most discussed). After increasing until May, the number of monthly requests decreased. At the national level, up to August 2021, 28,115 AEs were reported by French GPs (30% of total reports). Nearly 20% concerned serious and unexpected ADR. The most frequently reported serious ADR were similar to other reporters. Reporting rate varied from 0.15 to more than 0.4 reports per GP across the country. With more than 2000 reports, the number ADRs reported by GPs to the CRPV of Montpellier was multiplied by more than 50 compared to previous years.Discussion/Conclusion: The centrality of GPs in the vaccine campaign and their proximity to patients largely explains their increased requests to the pharmacovigilance system and their high involvement in COVID-19 vaccine surveillance.