Yes, Buzyn contradicts himself on the extent of the Covid-19 epidemic in February

• “There was no start of the epidemic when I left [the Ministry of Health]. "
• This assertion of Agnès Buzyn, during an interview on BFMTV on June 3, earned him criticism on social networks, where he is accused of rewriting history or contradicting himself.
• If the coronavirus epidemic had not actually hit France at the time, Agnes Buzyn had however said in March that she had left the Ministry of Health knowing that "the tsunami wave" was coming.

The first television appearance of Agnes Buzyn, LREM candidate in the municipal elections in Paris, after several months of absence, is far from unnoticed.

A sentence pronounced by the former Minister of Health in front of Jean-Jacques Bourdin on June 3 on the antenna of BFMTV is indeed taken up by several Internet users to denounce contradictory remarks around what she knew - or not -, when she left her government post about the risk of a coronavirus epidemic in France. 

"" There was no start of an epidemic when I left the Ministry of Health. " Buzyn rewrites history about the ruins left by the tsunami. Each of his statements is an additional charge for trial "," 3/17/2020: "When I left the ministry, I cried because I knew that the tsunami wave was before us." 06/03/2020: "There was no start of the epidemic when I left, I did not know if it would happen" ", denounce two tweets.

"There was no start of an epidemic when I left" from the Ministry of Health # Buzyn rewrites the story of the ruins left by the tsunami
Each of his statements is an additional charge for a trial #ComplaintCovid # OnNoublieraPaspic.twitter.com / hENX6C9nOz

As can be seen in the extract from her passage on BFMTV, Agnès Buzyn more precisely declared: “When I left [the Ministry of Health], there were 44 cases in Europe, 12 cases in France. They were all healed, except the old Chinese gentleman who died the day I left. There was no epidemic in Europe, there were tourists or travelers who had returned from the Wuhan region, who had been sick, whom we had detected on the national territory. We had traced the contacts. [...] We had quarantined them. There was no start of the epidemic when I left and so I didn't know if it would happen, when it would happen, how big it would be, how bad it would be. "

Agnès Buzyn: "There was no start of the epidemic when I left" from the Ministry of Health pic.twitter.com/UgSTKSQJy3

FAKE OFF

The accounting balance sheet advanced by Agnès Buzyn on BFMTV about people carrying the coronavirus in France when she left the Ministry of Health is correct: on Saturday February 15, when she holds a press conference - which will be her last as Minister of Health since she will leave the government the next day - France has 12 cases of Covid-19 and a single death, the day before, of an 80-year-old Chinese tourist (who made it the first died in Europe).

During this press conference, Agnès Buzyn gives some figures on the spread of the virus on a world scale as well as on the measures planned by the government: “We are monitoring the international situation very closely as we have been doing for several weeks. Today, there are 67,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections worldwide, including more than 66,000 in China. There are more than 1,500 deaths today. We must prepare our health system to face a possible pandemic spread of the virus and therefore a circulation of the virus on the national territory. This is why I will receive the representatives of hospital professionals and city health professionals next Tuesday here, at the ministry, to take stock. "

"It is very likely that we will have new cases"

If this meeting took place on the date indicated, it was not done with Agnès Buzyn but with Olivier Véran, since she had left at that time the Ministry of Health to replace Benjamin Griveaux at the foot raised as a LREM candidate for mayor of Paris.

As a sign of the rapidly evolving situation, Agnès Buzyn's statement on "a possible pandemic spread of the virus" at the time surprised several health professionals for its potentially premature nature. Jean-Paul Hamon, president of the Federation of Doctors of France, had for example declared to the Parisian  : "Myself, I was surprised to hear him say that, because it does not seem to me that we are at the stage to think of a pandemic. " François Braun, boss of the Samu, however believed: "We can be called catastrophist, but it is better to be ready, just in case ..."

"I knew the tsunami wave was before us"

But the tweets citing the intervention of Agnes Buzyn on BFMTV on Wednesday rightly point out her contradictory remarks, since she had also affirmed, in an article by journalist Ariane Chemin published in Le Monde  on March 17, two days after the first round of municipal elections and on the first day of confinement: “When I left the ministry, I cried because I knew that the tsunami wave was ahead of us. I left knowing that the elections would not take place. "

She also argued there: "I think I saw the first thing happening in China: on December 20, an English-speaking blog detailed strange pneumonia. I alerted the director general of health. On January 11, I sent a message to the President about the situation. On January 30, I warned Edouard Philippe that the elections could probably not be held. I was biting my brake. "

After having already clarified these remarks - which she described as “presentiment” and “intuition” on France Inter on May 28 -, she reaffirmed to Jean-Jacques Bourdin, on June 3 (from 13 '11 below): "I only regret one thing, that is to have answered the phone to Ariane Chemin the day after the election. Apart from these words that I regret, I do not regret having committed myself to the city of Paris. "

. @ AgnesBuzyn: "Until one week before the elections, all the experts on the boards said it was going to be a flu, I didn't know when it was going to happen, I didn't know the extent and the gravity" # le79inter pic .twitter.com / WNWjWI4MEW

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• Covid 19
• Society
• Government
• LREM
• Health
• Fake Off
• Agnes Buzyn