Doctors denounce a more “political” than “health” deconfinement



Emmanuel Macron – Guillaume Horcajuelo / AP / SIPA

For over a year now, scientists have entered the political arena. Twenty of them, doctors and researchers, this time criticize the executive’s deconfinement plan, in a column published on Saturday evening
on the JDD website. They also deplore that the gradual lifting of restrictions planned by the government in the face of Covid-19 is “more guided by political designs than by a health objective”.

Stressing that “according to the Pasteur Institute, only an optimistic scenario would make it possible to avoid an epidemic rebound during the summer”, they also recall that the scientific council affirmed on April 21 that the health situation remained “worrying”.

Doctors regret that there is no goal to achieve

“Rather than formulating an objective to be reached, such as the threshold of 5,000 new cases per day (…) the presidential announcements formalize an” emergency brake “or” re-containment “set at 400 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, against 250 previously , and associated with criteria as vague as the “sudden increase in the incidence rate” or the “threat of saturation of services” “.

“We are witnessing the officialization of the transition from active management to passive management of the epidemic. This is a daring bet, with a particularly high threshold and not meeting the control objectives ”, continue the signatories, including emergency physicians, general practitioners and researchers.

They demand “a new national protocol”

“After a year of deprivation, France aspires to resume a satisfactory life. But this can only be done on scientific bases ”, they say again, calling for“ the establishment of a new national protocol, which sets precise thresholds, triggering automatic measures, decided and debated in advance. “. “To fight effectively against the virus, it is no longer necessary to be in denial or in magical thinking, or to make the disease and its consequences invisible”, judge these specialists.

Despite a number of daily cases which remains high and a still high level of hospitalized patients, the government is engaged in a gradual lifting of restrictions in the face of Covid-19, with in particular on May 19 the reopening of stores, cultural places and terraces.



Source link