“On the masks, we were wrong, neither more nor less”, affirms Wednesday the former minister in an interview with Parisian, on the occasion of the publication of his book “Beyond the waves” (Robert Laffont editions) .
Besides, "this book is also an opportunity to apologize," he said.
In March 2020, as the Covid-19 epidemic swept through France, the health authorities deemed it "unnecessary" to extend the wearing of masks to the entire population.
At the same time, France lacked masks: reserves had fallen from almost 2 billion units (surgical masks and FFP2) in 2009 to 100 million on the eve of the health crisis.
A shortage which was then the subject of a controversy.
"Part of the public has criticized us for having knowingly lied about the masks, to hide the shortage", recalls Olivier Véran, who assures: "this is not the case. The truth is that, on the masks, we were wrong, neither more nor less".
Mr. Véran explains that he took up the pen on the evening of the announcement of the first confinement to "remember later the emotion of the moment", without imagining the extent that the crisis was going to take or knowing that he was going to do it a book.
He also confides to having "touched the burn-out".
In 2020, at the end of the first wave, "I had dizziness, deep nausea, throbbing legs" he reports, explaining that he then slept "three hours a night", skipped meals and was under "permanent stress".
© 2022 AFP