The president’s agenda now includes a recurring appointment: follow-up meetings on treatments against Covid-19. The head of state hosted the last on Tuesday. He invited around ten lay people, specialists in new diseases, experts in “monoclonal” antibodies and other interferons. He calls for international comparisons, especially with Germany. “We are banking on the ambition of these researchers to quickly find treatments that would treat serious forms of the disease,” explains the Elysee. Researchers need state support. The objective is to give this impetus. “
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It is not just a case of economic pressure. This mobilization illustrates a change in strategy at the top of the State: instead of betting everything on vaccines, the executive puts a second iron in the fire. “This is to guard against variations in the virus”, slips a minister on the front line.
“We do not put all the eggs in the same basket”, summarizes a government adviser. Because mutants pose a threat to vaccine efficacy. The example of AIDS is in everyone’s mind: triple therapy has turned the relationship with the disease upside down. While the vaccine, announced many times, is still pending.
Reduce severe forms
“We are investing, we are betting on treatments to improve the daily lives of the French,” insisted spokesman Gabriel Attal, leaving the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. What also, even if there is today “nothing accomplished” agrees a ministerial adviser, recall that there are prospects (long term) of improvement. Thus, the spokesperson for the government refers to “promising publications” and the launch “very soon of clinical research protocols”. The ambition is to reduce at least the serious forms to reduce the pressure on the hospital system.
But it is also a political subject. One only needs to remember the debates around hydroxychloroquine … The opposition, on the right in particular, had seized the work of the controversial Professor Raoult to apply maximum pressure, including through petitions, on the government. “Emmanuel Macron went to Didier Raoult’s office in Marseille to see if this product worked,” blows a relative. “Even if we are in a health crisis, everything is extremely political. The mask is political, the test is political, the vaccine is political, ”summarizes a government adviser. The treatment too.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
