Europe 1 with AFP 5:02 p.m., August 17, 2022

A decree from the Official Journal announces on Wednesday that the immunologist Brigitte Autran will chair the "committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks", successor to the Scientific Council created two years ago to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Council ceased to exist with the lifting of the state of health emergency at the end of July.

Immunologist Brigitte Autran will chair the "health risk monitoring and anticipation committee", successor to the Scientific Council created two years ago to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, an order in the Official Journal announced on Wednesday.

“Brigitte Autran is appointed president of the committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks”, is it notified in the OJ.

Maintain a watch on all health risks

This committee, created this summer, succeeds, with a broader aim, the Scientific Council created in 2020 to guide the action of the French government in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Council, which was chaired by Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, ceased to exist with the lifting of the state of health emergency at the end of July.

His successor will be responsible for keeping a watch on all health risks, with particular attention to the consequences of global warming as well as the interactions between animals and humans.

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"Diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans, or vice versa, or even come back in a boomerang from one to another", detailed Brigitte Autran in an interview given to Parisian on the occasion of his appointment.

“We have known this for a long time but without fully taking the measure”, and “today, public policies must take this fact into account”, she underlined.

About fifteen scientists in total

Brigitte Autran, whose research has mainly concerned AIDS, intends to compose the team of this committee, which must include around fifteen scientists, by the start of the school year.

On this occasion, she spoke on various current health topics, starting with the Covid pandemic, which she warns is not over and risks experiencing a new peak at the start of the school year after the current low. .

But she also differentiated the fight against Covid, in which it seems illusory to completely eliminate the circulation of the virus, from that against monkey pox, or "monkeypox".

"A 'zero Monkeypox' strategy is possible, unlike that of 'zero Covid'", she assured, calling for the acceleration of vaccination campaigns.

"By its nature, its routes of transmission, it is a virus that can be controlled."