What happened to the masks of the stock of State? Why the death in the long-term care facilities had they not been credited before 1 April? Sanitary measures have been taken in time? The emergency just past, the protagonists of the crisis of the Covid-19 are already forced to be accountable. As of late Tuesday afternoon, the director-general of Health, Jerome Solomon, opened the ball of the personalities heard by the parliamentary commission of inquiry. Launched on 10 June by the national Assembly, it is given six months to shed light on the’impact, management, and consequences” of the health crisis.
see also : to Understand the failures of the health crisis
“Our mission is not, and is not a people’s court, or a tv serial, warns from the outset, Brigitte Bourguignon, mp LREM and president of the commission of inquiry. It is not for us we replace the judicial authority and seek the guilty. Our goal is not to judge but to understand (…) in order to ensure that our country will be better equipped to deal with another health crisis of this magnitude.”
not to judge, but all the same: some of the thirty members of the commission of inquiry displayed reproachfully. “In a note dated 5 September 2016 addressed to the campaign team of Emmanuel Macron, you alert on the unpreparedness of our country to face the risk of major disaster (…). What decisions have you taken between your appointment in January 2018 and December 2019 in order to prepare our health system to this event?”, request Brigitte Bourguignon.
professor Solomon replied calmly, using a language that is technical, administrative, which makes it sometimes easy to forget the questions
air somewhat tired in his lord wearing a navy blue suit, the Pr Solomon replied calmly, using a language that is technical, administrative, which makes it sometimes easy to forget the questions asked. The epidemic was shown in the first line for more than two months: it is he who, every evening, presented the balance sheet of deaths and hospitalizations. It is also him who has endorsed the changes in doctrine of the executive. As well, he said on 19 march that wearing the mask was not of interest to the general public in the absence of infection, before declaring April 22 that he was “strongly encouraged” in addition to gestures barriers.
This issue of the masks has largely dominated the discussion. “Is there anything you regret your words?”, asked Damien Abad (The Republicans). “As Voltaire said, before you know, you don’t know”, replied the DGS, arguing that the world health Organization does not recommend the wearing of the mask to the general public that since 5 June, and in certain circumstances. And to add that a recent canadian study, financed “completely” by the WHO, pointed to”a huge doubt on the effectiveness of masks for the general public. “A note on public Health in France, dated September 2018 indicates that it would take 1 billion masks to cope with a major pandemic and you could not have ordered that 200 million. Why?”, questions Eric Ciotti (LR).
While the stock of surgical masks stood at one billion in 2009, it was no more than $ 175 million in January 2020
“In January 2018, a specialized company carried out an audit on the stock of State (approximately $ 750 million, editor’s NOTE), reports Jerome Solomon. The stock was in a poor state, which has led us to propose its destruction.” In October 2018, 100 million masks are being ordered. “We had endorsed the decision to have a buffer stock, turning, (…) for the whole of the stock is not expired of a sudden,” says DGS, recalling that very few countries have a strategic stock. The result of this change of doctrine: while the stock of surgical masks stood at one billion in 2009, it was no more than $ 175 million in January 2020. France has ordered 3.42 billion units, of which 2.4 billion surgical masks and 978 million of masks FFP2 between January and may.
Thursday, the commission of inquiry will hear Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the scientific Council with the responsibility to enlighten the executive, and the controversial researcher of marseille Didier Raoult the next week. Once we get past the municipal, this will be the turn of political leaders: Agnès Buzyn on the 30th of June, and then Marisol Touraine, Xavier Bertrand, and Roselyne Bachelot, all former ministers of Health. The prime minister, Édouard Philippe, and the current minister of Health Olivier Véran should follow.
see also : Coronavirus: judicial, parliamentary… investigations on the management of the health crisis are multiplying
mps are planning to investigate until December, while a senate investigating committee will be created at the end of the month. Justice is also concerned with the management of the crisis: the Court of justice of the Republic must indicate the end of June if the 84 complaints filed against ministers are admissible, and the prosecutor’s office in Paris has opened last week a preliminary investigation in response to a quarantine of complaints received. Some are aimed at administration officials. In Particular, Jerome Solomon.
” see also – Coronavirus: what do you expect of the commission of inquiry?
