The final report of this group of five experts appointed in June by Emmanuel Macron is expected in December. Already, initial conclusions castigate the management of the coronavirus crisis in France. In a progress report unveiled on Tuesday, this group chaired by the Swiss infectious disease specialist Didier Pittet pointed to “obvious shortcomings in anticipation, preparation and management” in health aspects.
Availability of masks, deployment of tests, coordination between the different actors and decline in the priority given to prevention are all weak points in the decisions taken in recent months, denounces this assessment mission.
The “main findings” have now been brought together in this progress report “to give advice that may be useful at this time,” explained Professor Pittet during a press conference, while France is doing faced with a clear increase in the epidemic and that the President of the Republic will speak on Wednesday evening, no doubt to announce new measures.
A delay in the deployment of screening tests
Compared to its European neighbors, France occupies “an intermediate position” in terms of excess mortality, but “has a particularly strong fall in GDP”, linked “essentially to the intensity of the containment measures”, notes the mission.
To assess the intensity of the epidemic, the report calculates in particular that France remained for 68 days above the threshold of one death linked to Covid-19 per million inhabitants, against 44 days in Germany, 97 in Italy, 100 in Spain and 183 in the United States.
In terms of screening tests, the experts in turn note a “delay in their large-scale deployment”, in particular compared to Germany. This delay can be explained in part because France was “not used to associating private biology laboratories with the strategy” initially based only on university hospitals, explained Dr Pierre Parneix, health doctor. public at Bordeaux University Hospital and member of the evaluation mission. He also regrets the low number of “field epidemiologists” who would have been useful for better control of the chains of transmission of the coronavirus.
The effort of caregivers, not necessarily “renewable”
On the other hand, the mission addresses a good point to the executive on its “management of the economic consequences” of the health crisis, which “appears satisfactory”, employment in particular having “held up well” in view of the magnitude of the shock. on economic activity, “thanks to partial activity mechanisms”. Another satisfecit: the hospital system “held” in France, “unlike other places”, underlines Professor Pittet.
But, warns the report, the “considerable effort of adaptation and mobilization” provided by health professionals “is not necessarily easily renewable in the months to come”. The mission also considers that “communication would benefit from being improved”, deploring “a lack of education on the relevance of the measures implemented, a reduced appeal to the responsibility of citizens and communication insufficiently geared towards young people”.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr