- The scientific council - cenacle of eleven experts, nine men and two women - is regularly convened by the executive to talk about the coronavirus.
- "Senators and deputies have asked that the scientific council be continued until October 30," explains its president Jean-François Delfraissy.
- Other experts could come to qualify the reflections of this body, which advises the Elysee, Matignon and the Ministry of Health on the major issues of the crisis linked to Covid-19.
It is the gray eminence of the government for all matters relating to decisions related to the Covid-19 health crisis. The scientific council - cenacle of eleven experts, nine men and two women - is regularly convened by the executive to talk about the coronavirus. Installed on March 11 by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, this committee chaired by Professor Jean François Delfraissy was created "with the aim of informing the public decision in the management of the health situation linked to the coronavirus".
The state of health emergency linked to Covid-19 was lifted on July 11 in metropolitan France, but the government wanted the scientific council to continue its mission. “It is not healthy for a structure created from scratch to respond in an emergency to continue. After preparing for the start of the school year and giving a final opinion on everything we know and everything we don't know, we will go back to our business, even if it means meeting again if the health situation required it ”, had yet declared at the beginning of June Jean-François Delfraissy. Almost six months after its creation, the scientific council is still present, and continues to deliver opinions. 20 Minutes interviewed Professor Jean François Delfraissy to take stock of the future of this body.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday morning that the situation in France was worrying, but that there was "nothing to panic about". Do you share this analysis?
I am not commenting on the Prime Minister's comments, it is a general rule that I have fixed for myself for several months. But what is certain is that today we are in a borderline situation, in particular in certain regions with a resumption of the circulation of the virus. This is not the case in France, we also observe this in other countries, in Spain in particular and also in Italy since August 15. This is a situation that we could in part expect, and which is mainly linked to the loss of physical distancing gestures, especially among the youngest population. But this is by no means a second wave.
After everything I have just told you, I am not very worried either. Why ? Because we have the tools now, we get tested and we do it in a very broad way, we run around 700,000 to 750,000 tests per week, and we are able to detect clusters. There is still a problem with the isolation of the patients detected, it is a real subject on which the scientific council is looking and on which it will deliver an opinion in the coming days. Today we must learn to live with this virus. We are now entering a risk management strategy. There will be no risk 0, that does not exist! There will be infections in schools, among children and school staff, but also at work in companies. But we must be optimistic, and let life resume.
Should other measures be put in place? Do you have other recommendations?
We entrusted a number of recommendations to the government, which has so far taken up quite a few. Any decisions made locally - such as closing bars and restaurants in Marseille between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. - are also good measures. This type of partial containment strategy has been shown to work. We have seen it in Mayenne, Guyana or even Barcelona in Spain. The answer today must be differentiated.
You declared in June "that it was not healthy for the scientific council to continue", and that the body should disappear during the summer ...
That's right, I said it, and I still stand by it. I thought we would stop on July 10, and then at that time, there was a renewal of the law around the health crisis. Senators and deputies demanded that the scientific council be continued until October 30. We hesitated a lot, myself personally. But we couldn't leave like that, leaving the void behind us, while the situation was contained but still very fragile. And to the question of knowing if the scientific council will continue after this date, we will advise ...
Who decides whether or not to continue the scientific council? What will be your next projects?
It is not the Senate or the National Assembly that decides our future, it is more complicated than that. It is the government directly that decides. But we are within the framework of the law, and in this case it is an amendment which called for the scientific council to continue, and the Prime Minister accepted it. The scientific council will continue as long as we need it. Our mission is quite simple, it is to inform and advise political decisions - and in particular the Elysée, Matignon and the Ministry of Health - on the major issues of the crisis linked to Covid-19. And we will continue to work in this direction.
Our next projects will be determined by the evolution of the health crisis. It is possible that new members will soon join the council, that we bring in new experts so as to have other fields of expertise. In the same way that we brought in digital specialists, a representative of civil society - with the vice-president of the ATD Fourth-World association - other experts could come and supplement our reflections. All of this is under discussion. It will be decided in September, and I will not say more.
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