"We have integrated global warming, we must now integrate the pandemic"

INTERVIEW

The coronavirus epidemic continues to progress in France.

More than 4,000 new cases have been detected in the past 24 hours, according to a latest report from the Directorate General of Health.

Figures that raise fears of a second wave and which prove that the virus is still circulating.

Philippe Sansonetti, doctor and researcher in microbiology, professor at the College de France and professor emeritus at the Pasteur Institute, publishes a work with the editions of Seuil 

A mixture of his chronicles written during the crisis, enriched by his current perspective, in order to understand the stakes of this epidemic.

He returns, at the microphone of Patrick Cohen on Europe 1, on the importance of integrating pandemics "in our software".

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"The front line has moved"

"I fully understand that talking about a pandemic outside an epidemic period does not excite the interest of the populations and political powers. I nevertheless think that this pandemic will be an important signal that it is something that must now be integrated into our software, "he says.

"We have integrated global warming, the loss of biodiversity, ecological disorders, and that is linked to it, we must now integrate the concept of pandemic. We do not want to enter into this type of situation without being there prepare."

This Sars-COV-2 epidemic, the parameters of which were very complementary according to the scientist to lead to a global pandemic, surprised the public authorities.

"We are a bit like in 1914, we have an offensive, we are struggling, we bury ourselves but we have to come back and do something. The front line has moved, we are in a different situation", compares Philippe Sansonetti.

"In particular, we have the means to diagnose, which we did not have when we entered the crisis, which considerably changes the situation insofar as we can isolate positive people and have an effective preventive action. without having to return to this confinement, which would be a catastrophe from an economic and psychological point of view. "

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While the virus is still circulating in the world, the doctor insists on the challenges of this new phase of the pandemic: isolation, diagnosis but also the need for populations to understand.

"Our destiny is really in our hands," he says.

"It's up to us to figure out what's going on and take action."

More preventive medicine, better communication 

Such a health disaster also makes it possible to learn lessons to better prevent future epidemics.

In particular on the question of preventive medicine, a subject dear to Philippe Sansonetti.

“Our country is a country that is doing tremendously well in curative care,” he explains, highlighting the work of caregivers and the logistics put in place at the height of the epidemic.

"But perhaps a dimension that should be considered a little more: the protection of the hospital upstream. We can try to improve the situation and avoid these brutal overloads as we saw them during this pandemic. "

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The communication of scientists in the media is also questioned by the doctor, who writes that "science is not a catalog of ready-made answers, it is a process in permanent evolution".

"The exposure of the scientist on the media level is an extremely difficult exercise, we see the collision between the media side requirement of a certain immediacy, of a certain polarized commentary and it is very complicated for a scientist", points Philippe Sansonetti.

"This is not how we are trained, how we practice science."

He sees in the Covid-19 crisis the opportunity to think about a different communication in these times of crisis between doctors, scientists and journalists.

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The doctor denounces in particular the over-media coverage of certain dissenting voices, which are nevertheless in the minority within the scientific community.

"The things that come out of the diagram must be taken with a more critical mind and less exposed in the media," he says.

He takes for example the repeated controversies around Professor Didier Raoult, a microbiologist just like him.

"Why combine an honorable scientific career with this kind of conspiratorial and populist attitude which has caused considerable harm? And on arrival all this made a

. The Marseillais are catching the Covid like the Parisians, chloroquine has done proof of its ineffectiveness in vitro in vivo. All for that and the mistrust continues. "