Covid-19: in the face of the epidemic, a worrying disarmament

by time news July 16, 2022

July 16, 2022

First text, first failure for the new Borne government. The amputation of the health bill of one of its flagship measures, the possibility of restoring a health pass at the borders as well as from or to Corsica and the Dom-Tom, has been widely commented on. The “baroque” alliance, in the words of Emmanuel Macron during his July 14 interview, between Nupes, RN and LR has caused a lot of ink to flow, as it portends difficulties to come for the executive. . For his part, François Braun, the new Minister of Health, has already indicated that he was counting on the Senate to restore the measure.

It is regrettable, however, that it is not rather the weakness of the measures to combat the virus contained in this bill that has been denounced. Because what will this border control measure be used for? “To save a little time in the event of the appearance of a new worrying variant”, pleaded Dr. Braun during his hearing before the senators. Experience has shown us, unfortunately, that the virus has no use for this kind of barrier. With its ease of spreading across the planet, it goes faster than our detection systems. His time is not that of the administrations, which he always takes by surprise. Latest example, the BA.2.75 variant. No sooner has it been detected in India than it is already identified in Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands…

Link the wearing of the mask to an incidence level

While we continue to be tossed from wave to wave, and the number of deaths due to Covid does not decrease, or only slightly, despite the massive deployment of vaccines, more is needed to protect us effectively from this coronavirus. No offense to the Minister of Health, it is enough to walk at rush hour in the Paris metro in the midst of the seventh wave of Covid to realize that the call for individual responsibility is hardly heard. However, it would have been possible for the health authorities to develop a positive discourse on the mask, rather than making it a constraint, with the sole priority of getting rid of it as quickly as possible. Rather than purely and simply abolishing the obligation to wear it in transport or offices, why not have determined a threshold of incidence beyond which it should be put back?

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Individual responsibility has a good back, when nothing is done to fight effectively against the Covid. Epidemiologists have been repeating it for months, in vain: it is essential to improve air quality in closed places, schools, offices, restaurants, bars, cinemas, public transport. Where are the standards and big investment plans that would protect us not only from Covid, but also from other airborne viruses? Experts also call for better monitoring of the epidemic. Admittedly, PCR and antigen tests are still largely free for the time being. But the dissemination of self-tests broke this thermometer. When will France decide to deploy new tools – tests on representative samples of the population, monitoring on a larger scale of wastewater…?

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We think we are well protected by vaccines, at least from severe forms. But the virus is constantly evolving, to better circumvent our immunity. If, in the coming months, a more virulent variant emerges, we will once again find ourselves caught off guard. The price of unpreparedness will then be heavy to pay, especially since our hospitals will, this time, have great difficulty in welcoming a strong wave of patients.