"Until March 16, not much happened in our country," said Tuesday a former director general of health in the National Assembly, judging that the authorities should have reacted faster after the alert WHO Coronavirus Report, January 30.
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Authorities have done "too much" and "not enough" on certain points
The general confinement of France to fight the Covid-19 pandemic had been announced on March 16 by Emmanuel Macron and had taken effect the next day. The French health authorities have done both "not enough", by stopping systematic screening and tracing the chains of contamination too soon, and "too much" by confining the whole territory when it could have been done in only three regions, analyzed William Dab, before the members of the commission of inquiry on the management of the Covid crisis.
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"The weakness of the field of public health"
The country's lack of preparation for an infectious disease pandemic is linked to "the weakness of the field of public health", and in particular prevention, which "we are interested in in times of crisis" but that forget "in peacetime". The epidemiologist, at the head of the Directorate General of Health between 2003 and 2005, also deplored the "accounting vision of the missions of the State", with too few means allocated in particular to intervention capacities in the field.
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Clarify everyone's role
If some believe that the preparation for health risks is expensive, "what we needed to have a solid prevention system is incommensurate with what will cost our country these two months of confinement," he said. valorize. William Dab also considered that the role of each of the stakeholders in times of crisis should be clarified, between the various ministries, between the various national agencies and, at the local level, between the regional health agencies (ARS) and the prefects. "In the event of a health security emergency", the "bearer of public decision" must be the prefect, the ARS playing a role of "advice", he recommended.