In March 2020, when the COVVI-19 epidemic was breaking in France, the health authorities had deemed “useless” the widening of the port of the mask to the whole population.
Le Monde with AFP
More than two years after the arrival of COVVI-19 in France, Olivier Véran returns to the way he experienced the health crisis in an interview with Parisian , on the occasion of the publication of his book beyond the waves (Robert Laffont editions). The former Minister of Health, who became a spokesman for the government, expresses some regrets: “Part of the opinion reproached us for having knowingly lied to the masks, to hide the shortage”, remembers Olivier Véran, who assures: “This is not the case. The truth is that, on masks, we were wrong, no more no less. We, WHO [World Health Organization] and international health authorities . In good faith, certainly, but we were wrong. “Besides,” this book is also an opportunity to apologize, “he said.
In March 2020, when the COVVI-19 epidemic was dressed in France, the health authorities had considered “useless” the widening of the port of the mask to the whole population. At the same time, France lacked masks: the reserves had gone from almost 2 billion units (surgical masks and FFP2) in 2009 to 100 million on the eve of the health crisis. A shortage which was then the subject of a controversy.
He also admits the absurdity of certain measures imposed during the first confinement. “For example when you reopen the restaurant terraces by demanding flower bins or plexiglass panels to separate the tables. But I also note that some neighboring countries that have qualified us as absurdistan followed us in most cases. That Make modest, crisis management … “
m. Véran explains that he took the pen on the evening of the announcement of the first confinement to “remember the emotion of the moment later”, without imagining the magnitude that the crisis would take or know that he was going to make a book .
He also confides having “touched the finger at burnout”. In 2020, at the end of the first wave, “I had dizziness, deep nausea, his legs that flage,” he reported, explaining that he was sleeping “three hours a night”, jumped meal and was subject to “permanent stress”.