Paris (AFP)

After Agnes Buzyn, passed on the grill Tuesday, the National Assembly's committee of inquiry on the management of the crisis of the new coronavirus questions on Wednesday two other former health ministers on the management of mask stocks in France, Marisol Touraine and Roselyne Bachelot.

After having covered the period May 2017-February 2020, MEPs will continue to go back in time to try to understand how France has allowed its strategic stock of masks to melt.

Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs and Health from 2012 to 2017, will be auditioned from 3 p.m. and Roselyne Bachelot, Minister of Health and Sports from 2007 to 2010, at 5 p.m.

In 2011, at the end of the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, stocks were at their zenith: France had almost one billion surgical masks and more than 700 million more protective FFP2 models. But storing these cartons comes at a cost, knowing that the masks will expire little by little, after four or five years.

However, at the time, the question of costs was thorny: Ms. Bachelot was widely criticized for having ordered too many vaccines (94 million doses, of which only six million had been used) in the face of a pandemic that was ultimately less serious than feared.

Ironically, the Covid-19 epidemic has returned to its favor, and public opinion now wants to see in it the embodiment of a precautionary principle forgotten by its successors.

"I find it hard to think of it as revenge. Revenge is something happy and I am not happy. I knew that I would be done justice and I thought that I would be done justice after my death A stroke of luck: I only waited ten years, "she said in April on RMC.

- Buzyn defends himself -

In 2013, while Ms. Touraine was in office, this change in doctrine was noted. Mask stocks are managed with a flow logic and the idea of ​​relying on Chinese imports and French production capacities to replenish these stocks in the event of a crisis.

Stockpiling is no longer centralized and responsibility is given to employers (hospitals, private clinics, etc.) "to determine the advisability of stockpiling masks to protect their staff", in particular FFP2, according to an official text. .

In 2015, a report by Senator Francis Delattre sounds like a first warning about the decline in stocks. Five years later, they melted. When the new coronavirus begins to spread, the state has no reserves of FFP2, 117 million adult surgical masks and 40 million for children.

Tuesday, during four dense hours, Mrs. Buzyn defended her management of the health crisis, three months after her departure from the government to try, in vain, to conquer the town hall of Paris.

"You cannot say that we have not been reactive," she hammered before the commission of inquiry, which has already heard all the directors general of Health since 2003 and several experts and researchers.

The ex-minister assured to have "prepared our health system" before his departure, alerting the Elysée and Matignon "around January 11". She said that she then requested an inventory of all stocks of protective equipment, including masks, and that she had placed an initial order for one million FFP2.

"There was a lack of anticipation and we missed everything," said Damien Abad, president of the LR group in the National Assembly on Wednesday, on CNews.

For RN Jordan Bardella MEP, interviewed on Europe 1, "the government lied to cover up mask shortages" and "obviously, the Minister of Health (Agnès Buzyn) also lied".

Xavier Bertrand, who held the position from 2005 to 2007 and from 2010 to 2012, will in turn be interviewed on Thursday.

© 2020 AFP