It does not yield anything. Masks, tests, preparation of the country for health crises ... The Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon defended Tuesday by foot the strategy of the authorities before the parliamentary inquiry commission intended to "learn the lessons" from the coronavirus crisis.
"The whole world was surprised by this unprecedented, massive, brutal, global crisis," he stressed to the National Assembly, assuring that no country could "boast of having been ready and having perfectly managed this pandemic. " However, he said he wanted to "learn all the lessons in all humility", to prepare for a possible "second wave". With nearly 30,000 deaths caused by the Covid-19, France has the 5th heaviest death toll in the world.
Not a "people's court"
The specialist in infectious diseases, one of the faces of the health crisis with his daily press briefings, opened the ball of the hearings of a commission which will be "neither a popular court nor a television series", repeated in opening its president Brigitte Bourguignon (LREM), also president of the Assembly's Social Affairs committee.
- "On March 4, you declared on @BFMTV 'masks have no interest for the general public'," said @damienabad.
- "We have always followed international recommendations", replies Jérôme Salomon. # DirectAN # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/FNj49rngol
Many questions have revolved around masks, "at the heart of the questions of our fellow citizens and carers", according to Eric Ciotti, deputy (LR) of the Maritime Alps and rapporteur of the committee. Jérôme Salomon retraced the chronology of strategic state stocks of these protective equipment, ordered massively at the time of the threat of the H1N1 flu and then partially destroyed after a 2017 audit which concluded that a majority of them were in poor condition. .
An order for 100 million masks was placed at the end of 2018, with the decision to move "towards a dynamic, rotating stock", rather than a massive "dormant" stock. But with the onset of the pandemic in France, the needs for caregivers suddenly increased from 3 to 5 million per week to 30 or even 40 million, while all the countries also saw their needs increase and that the main producing country, the China saw its economy paralyzed, he said.
As for masks for the general public, "we have always followed international recommendations", in particular from the WHO, assured the Director General of Health, accused by Jean-Christophe Lagarde (UDI) of "state lie" for having assured on March 18 that there was "no sense in wearing this mask" in the street "for uncontaminated people".
On the defensive on the tests
Regarding screening tests, he defended the end of systematic screening on March 14 in favor of "syndromic surveillance" and a diagnosis based on symptoms, explaining that this did not change anything in the care of patients . According to him, the WHO's invitation on March 16 to "test (r) each suspected Covid case" was aimed more at countries "that did not have access to the tests" at that time.
Jérôme Salomon also assured that "no national decision" had been taken regarding the hospitalization of Ehpad residents suffering from coronavirus, but that it had always been an "individual approach by medical teams" . He also claimed to have promoted a "culture of prevention, anticipation and risk management" since his arrival at the ministry.
Professor Delfraissy expected on Wednesday
The commission will hear Wednesday the former head of Public Health France François Bourdillon and Geneviève Chêne, who succeeded him in November. Will follow, Thursday, Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of the scientific council, whose opinions incited the government to decree the confinement then guided its progressive end.
Next will be the turn of two former managing directors, scientists, including the controversial Marseille professor Didier Raoult, and politicians, after the second round of municipal elections, with Agnès Buzyn, ex-Minister of Health, and several of his predecessors.
Installed for six months, this commission intends "to make our country better equipped to face a health crisis of this magnitude" in the future, according to Brigitte Bourguignon.
It is a question of examining “all the elements which led to this delay in lighting” in “January, February, March”, estimated Alexis Corbière (LFI), judging however that the commission of inquiry “is between the hands of those who, because of their political proximity, will not create all the conditions for the light to be shed ”. The Senate also scheduled its commission of inquiry at the end of the month.
These political investigations will coexist with the vast preliminary investigation opened Tuesday by the Paris prosecutor's office, targeting in particular the heads of "involuntary killings" or "endangering the lives of others".
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