For Jean-François Delfraissy, the return to normal could wait a long time.
"It's not now, it may be 2022, 2023" only, he believes.
Faced with the impact of the Delta variant, the President of the Scientific Council insists on the importance of "returning to simple barrier measures".
It is imperative to maintain barrier gestures, such as wearing a mask in crowded places, in the face of the epidemic resurgence caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, insisted Friday the president of the scientific council, Jean-François Delfraissy.
On the longer-term outlook, Professor Delfraissy was very cautious, stressing that "the return to normal is not now, it may be 2022, (or) 2023" only.
"We will win (against the virus ...) but I think that we will probably have a new variant and that we have entered into something long," he insisted on BFMTV.
"Go back to simple barrier measures"
In a "context of very broad contamination, it is necessary to return to simple barrier measures", declared the president of the body which advises the government, evoking the washing of hands or the wearing of the mask in frequented or closed places.
Even "if you are vaccinated and you are in a crowd situation, wear the mask," he stressed, saying "it is not a problem of law, it is a problem of common sense" .
"I continue to wear the mask in the Paris region, in the countryside I will not wear it," he gave as an example.
"In areas of the coast where there are a lot of people, yes wearing a mask seems reasonable to me," he said, asked about the restrictive measures taken in certain areas particularly affected by this "fourth wave ".
He also considered that it was "dangerous" in epidemic terms to frequent nightclubs, reopened with health passes, assuring that they had in several countries, in particular in the Netherlands, been at the origin of peak contaminations. .
He welcomes the adoption of the anti-covid bill
By adopting all these "simple precautions", it should be possible to "gain probably 20% in terms of hospitalizations", he estimated. He "welcomed, on behalf of the scientific council," the adoption overnight of the new anti-Covid bill with the controversial extension of the health pass and the vaccination obligation for caregivers.
The adoption of such measures, "it is urgent, it is the moment to do it, it is there where it will be played to avoid the hospital impact (of the fourth wave) at the end of August". However, he noted that "the practical arrangements must adapt, there must be a lot of nuance, we must listen to people and adapt the situations". And if "the health pass will very clearly be effective, it will not be 100%, we know that there will be holes", he admitted.