During a debate devoted to civil liberties, “Freedom in danger? “, organized on October 2 by La Revue politique et Parlementaire in Saint-Raphaël (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), the former president of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy fully assumed the restrictions of freedoms implemented during of the Covid-19 crisis on the grounds that they served, in these terms, to preserve “collective freedom”.
Returning to the management of the Covid-19 crisis, the immunologist argued that if “public health measures”in particular in the form of various confinements, have indeed deprived individuals of certain freedoms, “this attack on individual freedoms, which there was and which I claim, was done to better ensure collective freedom”.
On the #censure #media : “There is no longer the same #freedom (..) At the level of articles and reviews #literarywhen we [impose aux textes un discours]we also make their economic life (..) There is media power and #advertising (..) » Françoise Nyssen pic.twitter.com/xP1p3pVhn3
— The City of Debates (@Citedesdebats) October 2, 2022
Then asked about the health and vaccination passes, Jean-François Delfraissy defended these devices as tools to encourage vaccination, particularly in the face of the emergence of the Omicron variant. “It is the political authorities who decide, there has never been a third medical power”he argued, recalling that the decisions taken during the crisis were a mixture of political and health considerations.
In an interview with Var-Matin on October 2, the doctor nevertheless admitted to having some regrets about certain measures adopted during the crisis. “At the time of the first deconfinement, in June 2020, we may have put health before humanity within the nursing homes”he conceded, noting that more flexibility could have avoided “isolation” seniors.
The Scientific Council gave way to the Health Risk Watch and Anticipation Committee (Covars), installed at the end of September and chaired by immunologist Brigitte Autran. Covars, responsible for making recommendations in the face of a proven health threat or crisis, has the task of monitoring “the health risks linked to infectious agents affecting humans and animals”, “environmental and food pollutants”as well as the ” climate change “.
Read also: “Still too many unvaccinated people”, denounces Brigitte Autran, president of the new scientific committee
On September 30, Brigitte Autran estimated on France Info that “We really have to start wearing the mask again in transport and in all populated places” faced with the rise in the number of contaminations, likening it to “a kind of civic gesture”. Indicating that the eighth wave of the epidemic did not worry the authorities too much, she nevertheless called on the population to continue to be vaccinated.