The former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, who assured on January 23 that France was "extremely well prepared" for this epidemic that appeared in China, on the eve of the discovery of the first two cases on the territory, was invited on Tuesday by the Commission of Inquiry of the National Assembly to justify itself on the state of preparation of the country.

Barely turned the page on her bitter defeat in the municipal elections in Paris, Agnès Buzyn found herself on the hot seat. Tuesday, faced with deputies wishing to "learn the lessons" from the coronavirus crisis, the former Minister of Health was invited to justify himself on the management of the health crisis, she who assured on January 23 that France was "extremely well prepared "

"Anticipation" in France in the face of the coronavirus epidemic has been "incommensurate with other European countries" and "always ahead" in relation to alerts from international organizations, she insisted, adding: " You can't say we weren't responsive. "

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Agnès Buzyn reportedly alerted her teams at the end of December

From the first minutes of his hearing, the former minister got to the heart of the matter. When did Agnès Buzyn alert to a health risk? She says that it is by chance, during the Christmas holidays, around December 25. "I saw that an English blog reported unexplained cases of pneumonia," she said, explaining that she "came across it on Twitter". She then warns her services, and it is on January 11, when China announces a first death, that she warns the president and the Prime Minister. There are then only about fifty cases in China, recalls Agnès Buzyn.

First press conference on January 21

Awareness is changing rapidly, she continues. On January 21, she decided to hold a press conference to alert public opinion, even before the WHO became alarmed at the risk of human-to-human transmission. It's a first in Europe, she says. "My press conference on January 21, I make the decision before even the official WHO confirmation that there is human-to-human transmission. If I make this decision, it is because I imagine that it will to be evolutionary, and that we will have to tell step by step what we know and what we don't know. "

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"This is the start of the daily press briefings from the Ministry of Health. We were in anticipation from the start," explains Agnès Buzyn, who recalls that she has experience of health risks as a doctor. Before the deputies of the commission of inquiry, she also began to talk about the management of the masks that were so lacking. No, she was not the one who made the decision to destroy the mask stocks, she said, adding that she had ordered FFP2 masks on January 28.